


Time Stream

by Warp5Complex_Archivist



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-03-04
Updated: 2006-03-03
Packaged: 2018-08-15 23:19:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 31,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8076790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Warp5Complex_Archivist/pseuds/Warp5Complex_Archivist
Summary: Can you fix your past without breaking your future? Tucker/f. (10/23/2005)





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Kylie Lee, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Warp 5 Complex](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Warp_5_Complex), the software of which ceased to be maintained and created a security hazard. To make future maintenance and archive growth easier, I began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in August 2016. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but I may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Warp 5 Complex collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Warp5Complex).

  
Author's notes: his is the 18th story in this series (counting the AU episode "Face in the Dark Mirror") This story begins about three weeks after the conclusion of "Cross and Crown." Tia has been on the Enterprise for about nine months.  


* * *

The most prevalent sensation on the bridge of the starship Enterprise was anticipation. The vessel had entered many solar systems over its time in space, but never one, they could recall, that had such an emotional impact upon one of them.

As was normal for Alpha Shift, the Command Crew was at their various stations. What was not normal was that this time the young Exobiologist Tia Anlor was also on the bridge, standing next to Captain Archer. She wore a Starfleet uniform, as she normally did on 'away missions', this one trimmed in 'Sciences blue', with 'Enterprise' emblem but sans any rank insignia.

On the main screen, the vista of stars and other cosmic bodies flashed past them, shattered into the range of colors of the spectrum as they passed, refracted by the ship's warp field. In the center of the screen, enlarging quickly; was a white dot that rapidly grew in size and intensity.

"Approaching co-ordinates." Travis Mayweather reported from the pilot's station.

"Bring us out of warp."

Almost faster than could be discerned, a huge sphere resolved itself out of the cosmos and flashed past on their right. Barely an instant later the bright white dwarf star flashed off the left side of the screen.

As the faster-than-light field collapsed about the huge starship; the image on the screen resolved into that of a blue-on-blue planet. In the upper right part of the screen a huge red gas giant hung, its colossal system of rings hundreds of kilometers wide, each ring discernable in varying colors of the spectrum, over a hundred distinct rings in the system. But though the huge giant was impressive in itself, it was the smaller, blue on blue planet which shared a binary orbit with it that was the focus of attention.

Jonathan Archer heard a soft gasp beside him, turning to the young woman who stood, unable to move, unable to tear her eyes from the image on the screen. Her gold-tinted complexion was higher than usual, and her breath was coming in a series of sharp, erratic gasps. Her eyes, locked on the screen, unable to blink, were moist with tears she could not even try to hide.

Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker III stepped silently to her from the upper level, standing beside her so she stood between them, her body trembling slightly despite herself. Her hand, down beside her, closed about his and her breath calmed slightly. She took a deep, steadying breath, unable to blink.

"Aura!" Her quiet, prayerful whisper filled every part of the bridge.

The planet before them was almost equally divided, blue oceans and lakes and even bluer land, which blue they knew to be the result of the vast amounts of gold in the soil, mixing with the chlorophyll of plant-life, everything. The red giant, named Sabaoth, the ancient 'embodiment' of that race's second deity, contributed his ruddy light to the planet, illuminated by the white dwarf 'behind' them. Sabaoth's effect was most prominent in the tinting of the clouds that spotted the world below.

Trip Tucker tightened his hand about his beloved's; not saying anything. In a time such as this, there was nothing that needed to, or could, be said

Jonathan Archer stood up from his chair, the motion just distracting Tia's attention from her home. "Would you care to do the honors, 'Ambassador'?" She looked up at him blankly, turned an equally blank look to Trip, who with a gentle motion directed her to the chair. As she reached for the arm of the chair, she found her hand trembling, and she sank gratefully into the seat, not sure she could have stood much longer.

She stared at the screen, at the planet she had come to accept she would never, ever lay eyes upon again, and found she could have only one word was in her mind. 'Alee.' Home.

She sat in that center seat, staring, unable to think of anything else until she became vaguely aware of a whispering to her left, one that grew sharper as it repeated until it gained her attention. She looked to her left, to where Hoshi Sato was whispering something to her. "Standard orbit." Tia looked at her, uncomprehendingly. "Standard orbit!"

There was an unfathomable smile behind that 'stage whisper', even as she realized what the words meant. She looked at the dark pilot in the seat before her. "Standard orbit, Ensign Mayweather."

"Aye, aye." The man said; then glanced back to her with a wide smile on his face. "Captain!"

On the screen Sabaoth moved off to the right, its huge rings drifting away last as Aura grew larger, larger and larger still, until it nearly filled the screen. Continents resolved themselves with crystal clarity, islands appeared; the landscape became clear, the surface rotating from left to right, then toward them as they settled into orbit. There was huge Muljala, with Casplase to the southwest. When that tremendous continent passed 'behind' them, they were crossing over the Sulyana ocean. In moments landscapes again quickly 'approached'. There was the triangle of the three islands Jaswl, Nimsup and Tinvlasni! And there, just coming over the western horizon toward them as the faster ship caught up with it, was the huge continent Losban! They fell into orbit and Tia stared at Losban, blinking away tears, unable to take her eyes off it as they traversed its length. She knew that it was coming as Enterprise slowed to a geosynchronous orbit; she had only to wait as they traversed that huge continent.

There! There it was! Coming closer over the horizon! Her city! Pastuu!

Her breath started coming faster and faster, broken and shattered as she gasped, tears trickling down her cheeks beyond anything she could control as she gripped one arm of the command chair, her other hand clinging tightly to Tucker's.

Pastuu! It really was! Coming closer; coming into view 'under' them as they settled into orbit. Pastuu! Oh Aura! Oh Sabaoth! Pastuu!

Pastuu!

She was HOME!

x

At a slightly tighter grip from Tucker, she remembered to try to control her shattered breathing, but it was hard. She took a deep breath, trying to fight the twin urges to scream for joy and cry. "Misa-? Misa-? Misa ovre nic cassau ti?" A movement of Trip's hand in hers caught her attention, and she smiled. "Can talk we them to?"

"I've identified the higher power frequencies being used in the city below us." Hoshi reported.

"Open a channel." Archer directed. "Tie in the UT."

A moment later Hoshi nodded; and Tia took a deep breath, doing her best to steady her voice when it threatened to break. "This is Tia Anlor of Pastuu, 'Ambassador' to the Human government, aboard the Earth Starship 'Enterprise'." Her voice was trembling, and she could barely keep it under control. The UT rendered her Auran speech, an instant later, into colloquial English. "I wish to speak to the Relatu."

"Transmitting on all established frequencies." Hoshi reported. "I dare say it's creating a stir down there."

"I dare say." Archer agreed.

"Getting a signal. On screen." The image on the screen changed from the blue planet to a room, in which a group of people were assembled. At the desk at the far end a single man sat. All the men and women present were characterized by a golden pigment to their skin. It was clear from their positions in the room that the call had interrupted some meeting or conference. The man upon whom the camera focused and then zoomed in on was as golden-blond as Tia.

The only thing that distinguished him from the others in the room, beyond being seated at the only desk, was the golden pendant hanging about his neck, a lozenge shaped emblem in the center of which was a blue, multifaceted stone of the same shape. 'Radiating' from this large stone were eight smaller ones reaching from the stone to the other edge of the gold, four on each side.

"I am Relatu Gulbret. Who is speaking?"

"I—." Tia felt a warm body behind her move against her, and Relatu Gulbret, the bridge, Aura and her friends all vanished, replaced by a nearly dark cabin.

Chapter One Pillow talk

Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker awoke when the body in his bunk with him moved slightly, so he supposed that he had had just enough rest to be awakened, even though the chronometer across the room from him showed 0523. Though there were no lights on, the tiny light presented by the chronometer and other pinpoint displays provided enough dim light for them to see one another by.

However, he did not begrudge the early rousing. The slightly cooler body on the bunk with him—what a difference 2 degrees made—was warm encircled in his arms, spooned against his body. He passed his hand upward along the warm body under the cover. The bunk was built for one, but was not 'crowded' at all. He moved carefully, not wanting to wake his companion but, seemingly on its own, his hand 'found' and cupped its comfortably rounded 'target'.

"Shar-les?" A melodious voice, which he'd often thought of as 'ear candy', whispered quietly a few moments later. It was, however, more of a sigh. "Salyuuni?"

"Hmmm?"

"That you my pringle holding is." She said softly. There was a measure of sadness in her tone he did not understand.

"Sorry." He whispered into her ear, his quiet breath tickling warmly. He made to move away very, very slowly, but her fingers touched his hand.

"Did say I you it should move not." He smiled in the darkness. "Only, in dark or light, have trouble finding either you do not." He could almost hear her smile. "Is your human nature this?"

"My human male nature."

"Nyas." She whispered, letting go of the dream, finding comfort for it where she could; this time in wiggling her shapely posterior against his firming anatomy. "This your human male nature is!"

He drew her closer, and she certainly made no effort to resist. He rested his cheek on her bare shoulder, his lips near her ear, breathing in her scent, his whisper warm against her ear. "Tia." Her name ended in a long, contented sigh.

She turned over to face him, her eyes bright with delight; her initial disappointed sadness driven away by joyous surprise. "That first time you my name did correctly pronounce!" She smiled at him radiantly.

"Huh?" He asked, astonished.

Her whispered words were filled with delight. "Always you—and all others—'T'-a' say. Finally you do say T-ahh'!"

He frowned in disbelief, looking at her as she snuggled against his chest, her face just inches from his as they kept their words to intimate whispers. "Over eight months, and now you mention it?!"

She shrugged. "It was important not." Indeed, compared to the lovely memory that she was only now starting to adjust to as the dream it was, nothing else was important.

"What else have I been getting wrong?" She smiled. "Do I at least get your last name right?" She thought it over; then shook her head. "Come on!"

"Say you always 'On-lor'. 'Ahhn'-lor' should you say." He let his head fall to the pillow with a quiet 'thump', making her giggle.

"Eight months!" He could not believe it! "Tee-ahhh' Ahhn'-lor." He whispered.

"Daai." It came out 'day-eye'.

"What else have I been getting wrong?" She smiled, but shook her head. "Come on."

"Well..." She shrugged prettily, her breasts moving distractingly against his chest, "pretty much every thing." He picked his head up, looking at her closely. "When try to speak Auran you do, the funniest accent you have!"

"Funny accent?" She nodded, smiling. "That's why you didn't say anything! You've been laughing at me all this time!" She thought about it for a moment.

"Daai." He pulled the cover off her far enough for his hand to have an unobstructed target, then he recovered her.

"Shar-les! Why hit my minlu?!" She exclaimed, barely keeping her voice down, her hand covering the assaulted spot.

"That's where bad little girls get punished."

She grinned, even while rubbing away the sting. "I a 'little girl' am nyasi; at least longer nyas!"

"I've noticed." He drew her closer and they hugged one another in silence for a long moment. Ever since her return from Risa, after the luuru had passed, she was definitely not the young woman of seeming twenty two years that she had been. She looked now to be nearly thirty, and appeared closer to his own age, but she was still quite certainly the same person he had known.

"Shar-les?" She whispered against his neck.

"De stal?" She was silent, but from the tremors in her body he couldn't miss the fact that; "You're laughing at me again."

By the time she pulled back enough for him to see her face; she had forced a serious expression upon it. "Anston." It was short for 'anston li eda', 'sorry I am'; and interchangeable with 'anston li kir', 'apologize I do'. "Should laugh not."

"But I'm just such a funny guy."

"Daai." She could hold the serious expression no longer. "But 'de stal'' in your tongue 'what did you say?' would be. And 'day-stal'' would you say, 'day'-stal' not. If 'what?' you say wish to is, if to get more words, 'mosti' should you use."

"Mosti." She tried to keep her lips from moving when he stressed the 'o' rather than the 'i'. "I guess I really should learn your language properly. You've been trying so hard with ours; I've sort of been picking up things as we go along. And screwing up, it seems." She sighed, drawing close, hugging him.

"Is right all." She said, trying but barely managing to keep sadness out of her voice. "I here am—you on Aura are nyasi. See Aura I ailu...never again will." She had resigned herself, and realized she had to again, that she would never see her home again—except perhaps in her dreams. "May be I your language should learn and my own forget."

He pushed her off, his eyes locking on hers, his voice quiet and intense, no longer an intimate whisper. "No. Don't ever forget Aura! Don't ever forget anything about it! It's as much a part of you as you are of it. Maybe you can't go back there now, but maybe someday the day will come when you will."

"May be." She thought about it quietly for a long moment before whispering; "But what if come that day does? What then?"

"What do you mean?" He whispered, no longer that quiet intensity.

"Will forget me you?"

"Ti-ah?"

"Nyas. Will forget me you? If ever to Aura I return, will—." He pressed his finger to her golden lips.

"I am never, ever going to forget you! That's impossible!" She looked at him intently.

"Will remember me you? Matter what happens nyas? If stay, if go, will remember you me? Will remember you me?"

"Darlin', I swear I could never forget you! Ever. You are everything to me! I will remember you today, tomorrow, next year, next century, next millennium!" She hugged him. "But what's with this? Why such thoughts?" She shrugged.

"Think sometime that forget you me will."

"Impossible!" He held her close. "You're impossible to forget."

She lay quietly for a very long time. He did not try to intrude upon her thoughts, but just lay with her, his arms about her, her head against his chest.

Finally she shook her head, having resolved not to give in to the feelings. "Sad do I want to be not. Want thoughts happy when I you with am!"

"So do I."

She looked up into his eyes with an anticipatory gleam as she remembered something she was sure could distract her from this bleak mood. "Did something hear yesterday—funny to humans they said. Hear it want do you?" He nodded. "Knock, knock."

He was mildly surprised, but played along with the ancient riddle. "Who's there?" She drew back, a stricken look upon her face, and stared at him, her spirits plummeting at warp speed. Her face fell as if she were about to cry, despite the Auran conviction that one never cries in public. She turned away from him quickly, huddling in the thin blanket. "Ti-ahh?" She didn't answer, just shook her head. "Honey, what's wrong?" She wouldn't respond for several moments to his gentle shaking of her shoulder, his attempts to comfort her completely unsuccessful. Finally she looked back at him, sadness etched deeply into her features as she exclaimed in a voice laden with misery;

"Forget me already you did!" But at his distressed surprise she couldn't keep from grinning, and started to giggle.

"You set me up!"

"Daai! Fun it was!" He didn't know whether to be 'outraged' or amused, so he settled on both. But she suddenly stopped giggling and put her hands behind herself protectively. "Does expression that mean that hit my minlu again you want to?"

"Maybe I should. I told you one day you'd wind up over my knee."

She grinned. "Confused me that did, but it Liz Cutler explain did. Video record me some of our friends showed. Those women it seemed to enjoy, especially what next came."

He stared at her in absolute astonishment. "Is that what you two do, watch S&M porn?"

She looked mildly baffled. "I those words know not. But one evening Liz, Hoshi, Jennifer, Ann, Dina and I in Liz's quarters were, and favorite things we discussed. Something Ann spoke of I comprehend did not. Audio visual records she accessed and...Shar-les, what that expression on your face means?"

Trip Tucker was too astounded to answer. Sometimes, he reflected, one can really learn more about friends than one ever really wanted to know!

Instead, to save himself, he just hugged her, holding her close to him, feeling her cuddle even closer; closing every space between them. "Shar-les?"

"Hmm?"

"Together would stay we?" Her voice trailed off.

"Honey, what are you saying?" She was quiet for a long time. She could not forget that dream, or the reason why she had probably dreamed it.

"I know not. Know only have to...Hoshi me did tell that Wrenaouq Archer my signal did approve. We the Auran ship calling are; a 'compressed burst hail', she said. She on the frequency the Muutuur did use transmits 'Auranli eda'; 'Auran I am'. If receive it they do, find us they will."

"Honey, that's great!" But she did not seem as thrilled as he'd expected. In spite of living in a state of perpetual exaltation, he'd seen her more excited over a water polo match they'd watched two weeks ago with Archer; even though she did not have a clue about the rules or much else; as was made very clear when she enthusiastically celebrated the wrong team's goal. He asked her directly.

"Because when alone, with no chance to my people see, knew what I was; stranded and alone for the rest of my life. Now, I my people might see. Now, maybe, my world I might one day see. I want to!" She looked up at him. "But if it could mean losing you, would I nyasi!

"If ever to Aura I would one day return, what of you? Say forget me not. Would stay on Enterprise you?" He drew back a bit so he could look at her, surprised. It was a long moment before he could answer.

"I...I honestly never thought about it. I kind of got used to having you here. That you couldn't...wouldn't...go back. I guess I never gave it a thought that that might change." He looked deeply into her golden eyes. "Why? Is it going to change?"

She looked up at him, her eyes haunted. "I know not. I know truly not."

"Then why bring this up? Anything could happen. We knew this. But why worry so much about it now?" She looked away for a moment, unable to hold his eyes. But the pressure of his hand on her back made her look at him again.

"The Luuru. Past it I am. And the luuruna"

"And?"

She looked away again; blushing deep gold, closing her eyes so he could not see the change in them as her heightened color caused the tiny vessels in her eyes to be strongly highlighted, as if her eyes were shot through with golden lightning. It was considered a deeply humiliating thing for an Auran to be so seen. "It you treat as if thing happened has not."

"Oh, no. A lot has happened. I'm just still adjusting to it. I mean," he passed his hand above her, "a new body; sort of. A new—." She buried her face in his chest, and an aborted sob stopped him. "Tia?" She did not look at him. He pressed his fingers under her chin, but it took several long seconds for her to succumb to his gentle pressure and look up to him. It took a long moment for her to trust that her eyes had returned to normal, and she could look at him. But when she did, she could not wash the expression of deep misery from her face. "What's wrong?"

"I do know what not. You 'Salyuuni' are and act as it not." She whispered, her voice trembling with unexpressed emotion. "After the luuru, you Salyuuni are. At least you kentile are. But you say thing no. You do thing no. Waited I have! Waited so long! But..."

"I don't understand. 'Waited' for what?"

"After the luuru...past it I am...Tuvi mrunion Alirki ne Avinyaan seelna edalouu. You mrunion Alirki ne Avinyaan always will be." She looked up at him, her golden eyes searching. "But what makes that me?" She whispered.

He shook his head. "I don't know." She started to pull away, but he held her firmly. "I don't understand what you're saying! You've never told me what that means. You were never willing to. Are you ready to now?" She thought about it, trying to answer, but then shook her head, not meeting his eyes. "Then how can I know how to respond?"

"An Auran would know." She whispered quietly, even while realizing how unfair it was. She looked into his eyes, pleading for his understanding. "So personal it is that to say it I can not. Have given up so much of Aura! Told you all so much, but this so wedsa, so personal is, that explain it I know how to not! You kentile are! You Salyuuni are. An Auran would need it explained not, but further go I can not! Already too much said, given too much up. An Auran does speak of it not! Have spoken so many times of unspeakable things, because humans—you do understand not! But this far I go can not! Too kalriis...too perverted have I allowed myself become to! Can more to no!" She clung to him, begging. "Can understand you not?"

He wished he could. He devoutly wished he could. He had realized there were so many things that Aurans understood between them, so much taken for granted, that to speak of it openly had become so gauche as to be offensive. She had tried to break away from these limitations, which even put a taboo on verbally expressing love when it should be felt and...understood itself, but it was clear she had reached the limit of her ability to break with tradition, with the way a decent Auran behaved!

He wished he could understand, because obviously these words went far beyond the simple expression. He could ask Hoshi (again!), and she would give him the translation, but could she communicate the depth of meaning behind the words? As he watched her desperately hopeful expression collapse, he knew there was no hope here. "Tia, I'm sorry. I wish I could understand! If I am this thing to you, what is it you want to be to me?" Her eyes were moist as she blinked tears away, and looked up at him longingly; putting everything she had into one whispered word:

"'Tuvili.'"

He racked his brains. "'Tuvi' means 'you', doesn't it?" She nodded hopefully. She couldn't say it, but she could help him get it. "And 'Li' means 'I'?"

"Daai." She held her breath. Was he going to get it?

"So 'tuvili' would be a combination, somehow, of you and I?" She put her arms slowly around him, drawing him down close to her bare body, but it was only so he would not see the pain in her eyes, or her infinite sadness. Her lips were near his ear, but though they moved with a single word, she could not say it. But then she drew back.

"You I do understand not. You with me the Salyuun exchanged. Yet waited so long I have, patient have I tried to be; so patient that insane it making me is; but you nothing say, you nothing do!"

"The what?" She stared at him, monumentally shocked and clearly hurt.

"The Salyuun!" She exclaimed. "You can have forgotten not!" She could see in his eyes that he had. "You did! But how?! How could you the Salyuun forget!?"

"What?"

"On Risa!" She insisted. "On the beach!"

He shrugged, mystified. "I'm sorry, honey, I don't kn-"

"We did!" She exclaimed desperately, sitting up. "I there was! We did! I remember! We did! We did!" He came up, putting his hands on her bare shoulders.

"Calm down, honey. Please. It's all right!" But she was devastated, tears glistening in her eyes as she tried to hold her fracturing control.

"Is 'all right' nyasi!" She cried. "I—you my Salyuun accepted, almost five klanstu ago! You did! You can forget it not!"

"I haven't forgotten; you said something that night, but you were so worked up that I didn't understand it. You were kissing me so much I couldn't even make out the English!"

She froze, staring at him, horrified, his words crystallizing her own memories. Suddenly it was as if the joyous haze through which she remembered that night was stripped away and she remembered with horrible clarity that it was as he'd said. She stared at him, stricken.

"Then you...then you never...you never accepted the Salyuun?"

"As I recall, I barely had a chance to accept anything. But what is it, and I probably will."

"'Probably'?!" She exclaimed, her voice an octave high. She looked like he'd just slapped her, which he realized wasn't far off. She'd spent the last five weeks in a blissful romantic misconception, and

"'Probably' probably wasn't the right word."

"Nyas!" She gasped, tears trickling down her cheeks. "Then tell me. What is it? What's it supposed to mean?"

She shook her head, unable to endure it any longer. The luuruna was over! She couldn't get it back, and the Salyuun was for that night only! Without it, for her, 'tuvili' could mean nothing!

She pulled away, getting off the bed and reaching for her robe, pulling it on. He lay watching her in silence, wishing he could know what to say. He only knew he didn't think it best to try to stop her.

She cinched the robe closed in silence and pressed the exit button beside his door, letting herself out into the corridor. She only knew she had to get out of there. She had to get away from him before she shamed herself by crying like a heartsick atasiu.

In the empty corridor she leaned sadly against the bulkhead beside the door, cursing her own culture, the restrictions that couldn't even let her say it, when he should be able to sense it on his own. It was in such bad taste to say it that it was forbidden, perverted, but she wished with all her heart she could tell him!

"Tuvili." She whispered miserably, wishing she could reenter the room and tell him, squeezing her eyes shut tightly to keep back the bitter tears. She wanted to tell him. She longed with all her heart to tell him! But she could not, not and avoid breaking even more taboos, not and remain decent. But inside her heart cried out for her to go back inside, throw away her lifetime of customs and decency and just tell him!

"Yours I am!"


	2. Clarity And Chaos

Trip lay on the bunk, vastly frustrated. He longed to go after her, but something told him that chasing after her at this moment would be worse than letting her go. So he released her, wondering with all his heart what he could do to make the unknown wrong right again.

Unbidden, his mind flashed back to a conversation he had had late in the night some days ago. He'd been sitting in the nearly dark Mess Hall, where power was reduced to the unused room to conserve energy, with a coffee cup in his hand. It was about 0219, deep into Gamma shift whose 'noon' would not be until about 0400, and he had about five more hours before he had to be awake. He sat in the dimness, not drinking his coffee. Originally he had decided not to drink it because it would keep him awake. Now, he had no such excuse. The dark liquid was quite cold—he had not tasted it in hours.

He didn't look up as the door across the room opened, sending a brief spill of light into the room, then it closed again, restoring to him the comfortable dimness. "Commander?" A slightly surprised voice called to him. He looked up, seeing Hoshi Sato had paused on her way to the wall slots that contained food for use in the Chef's off-hours.

"Hi, Hoshi." He noticed she was in a short, pink off-duty dress, and looked quite fetching indeed. He tried to get a good look at her where the dress hugged her body, and at her long, bare legs without being 'caught'. It was all part of 'the game', and he tried to keep his hand in as well as he could; when he could.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm..." He shrugged. "Thinking."

"I figured that. I'd think you'd be asleep by now."

"Same to you."

"Couldn't." She smiled ruefully. "I was working on a translation of a signal we received earlier today, and completely lost track of time." The room sent silent. "And you?"

He sat back with a sigh. "Thinking." She selected a wedge of apple pie and came over to the circular table, taking a seat next to him. (There went the view of her legs, but there was still plenty to discretely stare at.)

"Selis tuy pon yintis?" She asked, using the Auran terms for which the natives of that planet had no corresponding meaning, but which were translated verbatim as 'penny for your thoughts'. It was the same thing she had said to him here some weeks before, during the 'luuru incident'. He looked at her ruefully.

"Funny you should say that. I've been thinking about that luuru thing. Part of me is still trying to get used to what's happened."

"I should think you'd be pleased." She said, smiling softly, knowingly. The girl had been stunning before she had matured, and now was even more so.

"Oh, I am. I guess. It just takes a bit of getting used to. That was a real change."

"Tell me about it. Neither Liz nor I could really get over it. What do you do when you watch someone 'grow up' something like five biological years in half a day?"

"Did I ever properly thank you for all you did?" She waved him off.

"Don't mention it. I was happy to help. Actually, I wouldn't have missed the experience for the world. But it's still going to have to take a lot of getting used to. She's still the same person. She didn't change, just her body."

"Just her body." He took a gulp of the coffee, forgetting how cold and old it was, and grimaced. Hoshi very carefully pretended not to notice. "But there are other things. For instance, have you noticed she's stopped studying? English, I mean. It's like she's...lost herself."

"Found herself; actually." She, Liz Cutler and Tia talked often about a wide variety of things; they'd become the Auran's 'big sisters' since she'd come aboard, indoctrinating her into human life and mores, and in general providing a sounding board for the young woman. "I'd noticed a few days ago that she no longer 'studies' English, picking it up now just from conversations and occasionally learning a new word or two. If she didn't have a photographic memory for languages I'd be concerned, but she's managing. Except of course that she doesn't pick up on context or grammar that way, so talking to her sometimes I have to plaster on a straight face." They grinned; sharing a private humor they would never express to the young woman herself, knowing it would shame her terribly.

"I'm not inclined to say anything." Hoshi continued. "She's finding a new balance, and sometimes that's hard. Have you noticed she's using a lot more Auran words in her speech, even when she knows the English? It's all a matter of finding her balance. She's afraid that the more she learns of our world, the less connected to her own she will be."

"Yeah, I got that."

"My advice; give her time. Let her find her balance, whatever it finally becomes."

"That's what I intend to do."

"Well then, my work here is done." She started to get up, picking up the last of the finished pie. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Actually, could it wait?"

"The morning?"

He sought, uncomfortably, for a way to bring up what was really on his mind. He had wanted to speak to her privately for some time now, and it was hard to get more private than oh-two-hundred in the Mess Hall. Most of Gamma Shift's breaks would not begin until oh-three-thirty. "I've been sitting here for hours, trying to figure out how to do something."

"What?"

"Actually, I was sitting here thinking about you." He admitted.

"Me?" She asked with a surprised smile, sitting back down.

"I was kind of hoping I could ask a favor of you." He leaned forward. "I wanted to ask you something. I could ask the UT, but I figure that it'll only give me the translation, not the context. You can do both."

She smiled at him. "So far this is very illuminating."

He gave her a wry smile in return. "Sorry. The fact is that I want some help in translating some Auran."

"I'll bet I know." She leaned in closer, her voice dropping seductively. "'Li vantis cuvilir'."

He grinned. "Why, Hoshi, I didn't know you cared."

"Not me, ding-bat!" She exclaimed, laughing. "No; we've already got that one covered."

"I see." She said. "I actually figured that."

"No, but there is something that she's taken to calling me, and she won't tell me what it means. It's probably some secret endearment, and I suspect she's been listening to you two too well about feminine wiles to drive men crazy, but since she won't tell me what it means it's driving me a little bit nuts. I think she knows it too, but..."

Hoshi held up her hand. She and Liz actually were guilty of having several conversations along those 'feminine wiles' lines, but she would just as soon not let Trip know that. And if this was actually causing problems, she felt obligated to try and fix them. "All right, I'll take a crack at it. What does she call you?"

"Nearest I can get it in her accent, it's 'Mrunion Alirki ne Avinyaan'." He pronounced it as carefully as he could, and watched as Hoshi's smile dissolved.

"She calls you that?" She asked a few seconds later, her voice carefully level.

"Yes." He answered; his mild apprehension building. "What's wrong? Nearest I can figure, it's not an insult."

"Oh, no. It's not an insult. It's far from an insult." She settled herself uncomfortably in the chair. "Very far."

"Well, what's it mean?"

"I..." She started, but then could not continue. She thought for several moments. "Commander, permission to speak freely?"

"Of course!" He said, surprised at her deference. She shook her head.

"I really don't think it would be appropriate for me to tell you what it means. If she wanted you to know, she would tell you. It's very...complimentary, but I think it would be really out of line for me to interfere with her wishes. You're going to have to ask her." He thought for several moments.

"Complimentary?"

"Too complimentary, I feel." She smiled slightly. "But then, I'm not in love with you." He grinned, starting to stand up.

"Thank you, Hoshi, I think I'll—."

Whatever he might have done had been interrupted by a call for assistance from Engineering. He'd worked on this problem well into his own shift, and by the time that shift was over he had labored for nearly 14 hours and had been so tired he had gone immediately to bed and accomplished nothing of his plans.

Now it was days later, and Tia had walked out on him, wrapped in a misery he could not comprehend. And he finally decided he had had enough!

With a blistering oath, he threw the covers off, and in less than two minutes he was in a uniform and out the door, in search of answers he was finally angry enough to get!

xxx

Tia barely knew how she made it back to her own quarters, her mind awash in misery and frustration. She would have given anything to tell him, to break a lifetime of custom and rules of behavior. She especially wished it now.

She opened the door to her quarters, entering the room, stripping off her white robe, throwing it at a chair before collapsing dejectedly onto her bunk, facing the wall, misery overwhelming even her frustration.

A few seconds later, though she had not heard the door open, she sensed a presence in the room, but she did not open her eyes. She knew who was there. Just as she had admittance to one particular quarters; so did Shar-les 'Treep' Tucker have full entry to hers. She smiled, aware of the presence not two meters away. Maybe all was not as lost as she thought. He'd followed her. Maybe he'd...

But in the next instant, her eyes opened wide in astonishment, for the presence that she sensed in the room was of a type she had never expected to feel ever again.

The presence was Auran!

Turning over quickly in the bunk, she froze, surprise giving way to astonishment!

x

The tall woman with the golden complexion, long golden hair and a flowing gown of blue decorated in floral print, so clearly an Auran fashion that she wanted to deny the vision for that alone, was herself!

She stared, shocked, convinced she was dreaming when the apparition addressed her in fluent Auran, and in her voice! "::No. You me neither dreaming nor imagining are.::"

"::This impossible is!::" She replied in her native tongue, unable to believe what she was seeing. The woman had her voice, her face, her body...It was her! But there was something different nonetheless, something she could not identify, something in the eyes, in the manner, in the...feel of the woman.

"::You already on this ship have been long enough to know that little 'impossible' is.::" The apparition replied in a reprimanding tone Tia did not at all care for. "::I sorry am, but there little time is.::" From her sleeve she pulled a phase pistol. Tia froze in absolute astonishment, watching herself point the deadly phase pistol at her. "::The less know you, the happier be you will.::"

At that instant her door opened. Both turned at the unexpected distraction, as Charles Tucker strode through the open doorway in high frustrated fury.

x

"All right, Tia, I've had it! That's it! No more! I am completely fed..." Trip's voice cut off as he stopped, stunned by the sight of two Tia Anlors, one standing in a blue gown holding a phase pistol on the unclad other as that one lay in her bunk; but the expression on the face of the standing one was profound indeed.

"Shar-les!" She exclaimed, eyes wide, breath caught, looking like she had not seen him in months! In that instant the Tia who lay on the bunk lashed out with her foot, kicking the phase pistol aside.

She was out of the bunk almost faster than Trip could see, tackling her double, driving them both to the floor. The battle was short but violent, fists and feet employed at greater than human strength and speed as they fought for control of the pistol as Trip, unarmed, tried to keep clear of the wildly waving weapon!

A moment later the unclothed Tia twisted the other's arm viciously, hard enough to have wrenched it from its socket; the pistol flying from the woman's hand to skitter across the room almost to Trip's feet. Quickly he scooped it up, adjusting the setting all the way down from heavy to low stun.

"All right! Both of you—freeze!" He yelled. He was mildly surprised to see both women obey his order, turning to look at him, frozen in the middle of their desperate struggle. "Break! Move apart! Now!"

"Shar-les! Nyas!" The blue gowned one protested, though the other pulled aside immediately, backing away toward the bunk. "You must not!"

The other was still backing away, but Trip wanted them both close enough to cover until he could make sense of what he was seeing. Beyond the fact that one was clothed and the other was not, they were identical. He pointed the phase pistol at the unclothed one backing away to his left. "That's far enough."

"Shar-les!" She exclaimed, shocked. In that instant the blue gowned Tia's right hand delved quickly into her left sleeve. Trip shifted the pistol and fired!

The bolt of energy caught the woman in her chest and she was slammed backward into the bulkhead, where she fell to the floor in a flow of blue. Trip held his surprise enough to train the pistol on the relieved other, stopping her dead. "For your sake, I'd better have shot the right one!"

"Daai! You have!"

Trip was not convinced. They were completely identical and both behaved as though they knew him equally well. The only distinction that made him inclined to believe this one was that she had left his quarters so short a time ago, clad in only a white robe which now hung haphazardly over the back of her chair.

He reached for the comm panel, not moving the pistol by a hair's breadth. "Tucker to the bridge. Send a Security Team to Tia Anlor's quarters immediately." He turned off the circuit, not waiting for a response. Instead, he addressed the woman who was still standing. "You'd better put some clothes on."


	3. You Her Must Stop!

A pair from Security was followed in short order by Lt. Reed, Dr. Phlox, Captain Archer and Sub-Commander T'Pol, all of whom regarded the twin Auran women with varying degrees of surprise and interest. Before their arrival a shaken Tia Anlor had completely assured Trip of her identity by describing the events of just minutes before in his quarters, enough to thoroughly convince him which was the impostor.

But despite assurances, it was hard for Trip to deal with this. The unconscious young woman they had put on Tia's bed was absolutely identical to the one he knew so well. He looked from one to the other, over and over, comparing minutia and finding absolutely nothing different between them. It was beyond eerie.

They had barely gotten the second Tia onto the bed when the door behind them opened and two Security guards entered, phase pistols drawn. Finding nothing that needed shooting, they holstered the weapons, going from 'alert' to 'guarded'. Less than a minute later Archer, Reed and T'Pol arrived, followed seconds later by Phlox.

Nine people, though one was on the cot, made the small room very crowded indeed, so Reed signaled to the two guards that they could withdraw with him. Whatever was happening; and why there were two Tia Anlors in the room; it was at least not a dangerous matter—yet. Not with the suspected imposter unconscious. He would, however, run very thorough scans and tests; the fact that an intruder could get on the ship at all was not pleasing.

Watching from outside the open door, he looked carefully from the one standing beside Trip to the other laying on the cot. 'Two of her.' He thought. 'I didn't know when I was well off.'

"What can you tell me, Trip?" Archer asked.

"Not a whole lot, Cap'n. I walked in and found her," he pointed to the one on the bed, "pointing this phase pistol at Tia."

Archer noticed the pronouns his friend expressed; obviously he had decided which one was the real one. He wasn't so sure. "What is she?" He asked Phlox, who was examining the unconscious woman. "Is she a Suliban?"

"She Auran is." Tia declared, cutting off whatever Phlox might have said. She was so definite that Archer did not reprimand her interruption.

"How do you know?"

"I sensed her." The young woman looked about uncomfortably, unable now to keep silent. "When 'arrive' behind me she did, sensed her I did." Again that look, and now she admitted very reluctantly. "I sense you all not. I have never." Trip looked at her curiously, and she fought to keep from blushing.

"Phlox?"

The Denobulan looked up. "A telepathic sense?" He speculated carefully, looking then at Tia. "You've said your people know so well about each other, your feelings, that to speak of some things has become gauche."

Tia nodded reluctantly, wishing she did not have to admit it. "Feelings, emotions...presence. We...'aware' of one another are." She addressed Archer directly. "She Auran is." She looked down at the unconscious woman on her bunk, unable to keep from admitting: "She me is."

x

Trip handed Archer a small rectangular device attached to a leathern band. "She was wearing this. When she went for it I stunned her. It was the only thing she had on her."

Recalling Tia's Auran predilections regarding fashions, and mores which were very different from those of humans, Archer very carefully schooled his expression.

The rectangular silver device was studded with a series of small buttons, four rows of five, with a single one set aside to the far right side. Each was labeled in tiny flowing script, very ornate curves that meant nothing to him at all. He held it up for Tia to see.

"It Auran is. The lettering. I what it is know not." She pointed but very carefully did not touch anything. "These rows," she said, indicating the top two, "'zero' to 'nine' are in your language. The others letters are, but I know their meaning not. Is full wernneuo—is full 'alphabet' not. Thirty-eight letters we have to your twenty-six."

"The first letters of commands?" Trip speculated.

"Daai." She agreed, admitting it was only a guess.

Archer handed the device to T'Pol. "Have this examined—carefully." He had several potential theories for how there could possibly be two identical women here at the same time, and he did not like any of them.

"If that's all," Phlox said, "I want to get her to Sick Bay. I can't do a proper examination here."

"What can you tell us?"

The Denobulan shrugged. "She's been hit by a phase pistol beam at close range."

Archer mentally started to count. He doubted he'd stop long before a thousand.

xx

When they reached Sick Bay, a gurney having transported the unconscious young woman, things did not drastically improve. Phlox and Ensign Dina Samuels from Life Sciences, who was acting Nurse on this shift, got her onto a biobed, and began the examination her while Archer and Trip waited with barely contained impatience. Tia got closer and closer to her twin until she stood beside her, unable to pull her eyes from the Auran.

Phlox worked on in silence on the other side of the bed, with Dina beside him, but only until Tia actually took the hand of the other woman. Finally his patience waned and he put down the molecular scanner he was using. "Tia, please. It is hard enough, when you stand so close, to distinguish between two sets of bio-signs so similar as to be virtually identical, but if you insist upon touching her I will not be able to work at all!"

"Anston, Doctor." She said, withdrawing her hand. She took about half a step back.

"Miss Anlor?"

She looked back to where Captain Archer and Charles were standing an appreciable distance away. "Daai?"

"Please return to your quarters." When she'd withdrawn so little, he decided this was the best method of getting the Doctor's answers as quickly as possible.

"Mosti?" She asked, astonished; unable to believe her ears.

"We will send for you when the examination is completed." He promised. She turned to face him squarely, outraged.

"Nyas! Kil ri sei! Li yue dupris nyasi!" Archer's expression did not change, but Trip's reflected his shock. He understood Tia's refusal. Archer did not need to see his friend's face, nor did he need to know the words 'This me is! I will leave not!' The tone was enough.

"Miss Anlor; you will please return to your quarters." His tone clearly told her that he had not wanted to repeat himself and had no intention of giving her a third chance!

"Honey, please." Trip urged.

Keeping her silence against mounting outrage, she gathered what dignity she could and stalked past them, repressed fury like a thunderhead around her. But as the doors opened before her, she stopped and turned. "I her to sense wanted. Her feelings I you could tell." She turned and strode down the corridor, her anger high.

Trip turned to Archer. "I know; I'll talk to her."

Archer shook his head. "No, don't worry about it. I can imagine how I'd feel if it were me on that bed."

"And if you'd pulled a gun on yourself."

xx

Tia strode down the corridor to her quarters, her mind blazing in fury. Archer had ordered her back to her quarters like she was an Atasiu, a child! This was her on that bed, and though she had to admit that Phlox had been right, this was herself on that bed, a self that had drawn a phase pistol on her!

She would follow the Wrenaouq's order. She would go to her palysre as ordered. And there she would wait exactly six point four three piwu, which she had learned were the 'traditional' five of their minutes, and then she would return to get her answers!

As she entered her room, her thoughts were jolted to sudden alertness, her body assuming an automatic defensive posture as she encountered another unwelcome intruder! This one was a man about 40 human years old as she had learned to judge human age, wearing a Starfleet uniform. He had the same complexion as most of the humans she knew, had brown hair cut in the usual fashion, though he did weigh a bit more than most Starfleet crew. His uniform was accented with red piping, and he wore the rank studs of a Lieutenant. "Peace." The man urged, holding up one hand. "I won't harm you. I have a proposition for you."

"Who are you?!" She demanded, frustration and anger driving any thought of patience from her mind. He was not one of the eighty one humans aboard; they had not met any other ships in many polus; and she was in no mood for tricks or human 'doubletalk'!

"My name is not important, but what I have to offer is."

"So you say, but I you believe not! I by myself have been visited, and she me to shoot tried!" She analyzed him with a critical eye. He was an icad taller than she was, perhaps thirty two lison (or forty human kilos) heavier, but there were over twenty excellent targets in easy striking distance. A right fist to his third left rib would split it completely in half; left hand hard to his carotid pulse, grasp his left hand and twist backward an icad short of snapping the wrist-bone and she was certain he would tell her everything she wanted to know!

x

The man was taken aback by this unexpected development. There was not supposed to be another version of Anlor in this temporal continuum, but clearly there was! He had to think quickly if he was going to succeed against this suspicious woman.

"That was not you. That was a fake." He lied, not certain it was going to hold. "Someone wants to stop you from fulfilling your greatest dream."

"Lie you do! Know I could!" She seethed. "My 'greatest dream'? What know you my 'dreams' of?"

"I know a great deal about you, Tia Anlor."

"I you know of nyasura; nothing! Nyasura but that you my questions answer will, before angrier I become!"

"I'm from your future, 362 years, to be exact. I have been assigned to help you to prevent the conquest of your planet."

x

Tia was rocked. She had heard from these humans of others that traveled the Time Lines, performing vast wonders. One had lived among them for weeks before she'd arrived, before revealing himself as an agent from the future. Was this another?

"What say you? And is this how I was here pointing at myself a phase pistol?!"

"You know there are many opposing factions in this war. Some want to stop you."

"Met I one of your warriors have! Tried he to all of us kill did! Why should I you believe?!" She demanded; her patience already at an end at this second invasion of her privacy! This man was not Auran, he was human. He was wearing a Starfleet uniform, but was not a member of the crew. She did not trust him; his sweet words or his sweeter promises!

"That was not one of ours. That man was from a faction that—."

"Vlis!" She commanded furiously. "Faction and faction; heard I from these humans over and over again of 'factions'." She clenched her fist, measuring exactly the distance to his rib, and how much force was needed against his human body to break it cleanly in half. "Say plainly; I you one final chance give!"

xx

"Well, Doctor?" Archer demanded with strained patience as the Denobulan stepped away from the unconscious woman.

"She is Tia Anlor." He told them. "As much as is the young woman we were just with. I am firmly convinced that these two women are the same person."

"How can that be?" Rather than answering immediately, he led them back to where she lay, standing on the other side of the quiescent body, Dina stepping away to make room for them.

"This woman matches, as closely as I can determine; the physical characteristics of both the other who was just here and our medical records—with one notable exception."

"And that is?"

"She is at least eight months older."

xx

The man smiled disarmingly; seemingly supremely confident she would not attack him. "I am a temporal agent from the future, sent back to help you. I can make it possible for you to save your people." His voice was gentle, mild, and she recognized it was meant to be soothing. In fact, she had to admit that it was soothing, but she did not want to be soothed! Yet for some reason she also found it strangely compelling. "I have the power to help you free your planet. Or, more accurately, to make sure the subjugation of Aura by the Silurians never occurs." His voice was full of silky seductiveness, which further flamed her suspicions.

"Tinkasla!" She declared in lessening though still smoldering rage that it was 'impossible'.

"Not so." He said mildly, gently, surprising her that he knew what she had said even without the UT activated. Unless, of course, he had one she could not see. If he was really from the future, they would certainly have improved the hand-held device. In fact, his tone was so mild, so pleasant, that she found with a measure of surprise that she was not as angry as she had been before. "We have the power, and the desire, to help you. To make certain that your home world never falls prey to the 'klusert ku vorklis', your 'demons from hell'." But the memories of what had happened so recently on far Vendikar, and before they had reached Caldis III, were still too fresh in her mind for her to be taken in by his seductive tones.

"You of the 'temporal war' are!" She meant to protest this very sharply, but could no longer manage to raise the outrage to do so. It was as if she was starting to be convinced that he was right...but this was wrong! There was something wrong here. Some part she could not grasp. "But the ones Shar-les worked with not. You of the others are; the ones who to kill us tried."

"No. That was still others. We are not them." He smiled a very mellowing smile. "We prefer to think of our job as maintaining the balance of the universe." He continued on in those same smooth tones, his voice compelling, calming; relaxing. "There are some who would allow the injustice of the universe to continue unchecked, allow the strong to prey upon the weak, allow wrongs to go unrighted, allow abuses to go unpunished. We do not subscribe to that." He stepped closer, his eyes holding hers compellingly. "I believe you are a kindred spirit. Certainly the abuse of your people by the Silurians is an outrage that should be checked."

"Daai." She said softly, unable for some reason to mount a stronger tone. But even as she spoke, she realized she was having increasing trouble concentrating. He was right. Wrongs had to be righted. The weak had to be protected. What was bad about that? It was right.

But she was supposed to be suspicious of this man. He had intruded on her, presented his offer unbidden and unwelcome; so why was it getting so hard to not believe him? His compelling tones, his eyes that never left hers...

"Zilk tinkasla vas sei." She shook her head sharply, trying to fight whatever was clouding her mind, slowing her thoughts until it became very hard to translate simple English. "But impossible it is!" She managed to repeat, remembering to use English. But why? He'd understood her before, or had he? But expressing herself in English was becoming a habit that was getting hard to break. "Defeated my people are! Li cassau caalyuau misa nyasi." She shook her head again, unable to clear it. She couldn't concentrate on translating. Something was very wrong, but she couldn't' think of what it was. "I them save can not!"

"No. They can be saved. You can save them." He stepped closer still, his tone softening even more. She couldn't look away from his eyes. They were blue, and seemed so deep. So deep. So filled with truth; how could she oppose his truth? "You've fought all your life to save them, but in the end you failed. Now you can succeed. Now you can free your people."

Yes, she believed this mellow toned voice. He was right. His words were true. "Now you can restore to them the peace and prosperity and harmony and culture that had been taken away from them." He told her softly, seductively. "You can save them."

"Caalyuau cannau..." She heard herself whisper 'save them.' But it was wrong. Or was it? No, it wasn't. They could not be saved, no matter what he said. She tried to look away again from his deep, compelling eyes, to close her ears to his voice, but she couldn't.

She had to save her people. She had the ability to save them. She had the resources of a great starship. She had wanted for her whole life trying to save them, and after she'd been 'recruited' into the Muutuur (though very mush against her will) she'd been given the training to fight, but despite her very best efforts she had failed. Now she was being given the chance to succeed! She wanted this more than anything else in the galaxy. She had tried all her life to save her people, and now she could. Nothing else mattered. She was the one who could help them. She was the only one. The only one...

xx

"Bring her around." Archer ordered. Phlox shook his head.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple. I mentioned differences between this Tia and the one out there." He gestured toward the corridor. "I've found extensive bruising, lacerations, contusions, three broken and recently healed bones, stress-related systemic deterioration and other things that 'our' Tia does not have. But I have also found higher levels of nutrients and elements in her blood and organs that are unique to her planet, levels I was unable to bring her to here using artificial supplements. Furthermore, elements in our atmosphere, foodstuffs, et cetera, are reduced to the barest traces or are non-existent in her body. Her body is, in fact, approximately as it was when we first found her aboard the Krontis."

"In English, Doctor!"

"I believe that she has spent at least eight months off this ship, and that she spent that time on her home planet."

The young woman was dressed in a flowing blue raiment decorated with floral designs that Archer had to admit, by his lack of recognition of it even from the Risan fashions she had taken to wearing or of the flowers depicted upon it, was most likely genuine Auran material and style. The woman's face, figure, golden complexion, everything was exactly as they had come to know her, ever since the change that had overtaken her during the luuru some weeks before.

"Which is why I need her conscious." He told Phlox firmly.

The Denobulan didn't quite sigh, though his tone conveyed the thought of 'I told you so' better than his words. "All right." He looked at Dina. "Would you prepare an injection of tinkalamine, twelve cc's?" He waited while the woman crossed the room to the medical supply cabinet. "This really is a bad idea." He insisted. He'd feel a lot better if the woman could recover from the effects of the phase stun on her own while he continued to examine her. When Dina returned, he accepted the hypospray and pressed the device to her neck. There was a brief hiss, and a moment later the woman's eyes flew open and she almost leapt from the biobed!

"Whoa!" Trip urged, stepping close, grasping her shoulders to hold her down. "Take it easy. You're all right." She fought him for a moment; then stopped as his words filtered through her drugged brain and focused on him.

"Shar-les?!" She exclaimed, as if unable to believe she was seeing him.

"Yes, it's me."

She sighed in profound relief. "Edali kiri..." She stopped sharply, shaking her head, forcing herself to remember the English words. "Did yintu...think see you I again would ailu...never."

It sounded like her; same voice, same inflection, same 'fractured' melding of English with Auran syntax, especially strong since she seemed to be trying to remember English. According to Phlox it was her, but she was in her quarters! "What happened?" He asked.

"Li vlis muuru ti re!" She pressed her lips together, biting off a frustrated expletive. "I stop had to her!" She looked about urgently. "Where she is?"

"Your...other self? Probably in her quarters. We thought it best to keep you two separated in the first few minutes, until we get a handle on things."

She looked up at him in increasing urgency. "Time?! What time is?"

"0947."

"Nyas!" She almost yelled, jumping off the biobed in a flurry of blue. But her body had not yet recovered from the phase stun and the drug used to revive her, and her legs gave out under her. Trip barely caught her in time. He held her as she tried to struggle to stay on her feet, but her legs would not support her. "Tuvi trinas nyasi!" She exclaimed, clinging to him. Her desperate eyes took in the others. "Tuvi trinas nyasi!" Only then did she remember to translate her thoughts. "You understand not!"

xx

"How I alyanti...'help' my people misa...'can'?" Tia asked, struggling to find the words; feeling like even her mind was fighting her. This was something she truly wanted to do, but knew it was impossible. At least, it should be. But it wasn't. She could do it. She could save her people! But that was impossible, they were slaves of the Silurians, and had been for over sixty palyis!

But here this man was, offering her the chance to fulfill her most ardent wish. She had meant to demand an answer to her question, but for some reason she could not. "I one person am." The protest seemed too soft even for her ears.

"The Vulcans have a saying: 'One man can summon the future'. You can be that person. With the right help."

"Suur alyanti?" She asked. She shook her head hard, trying to clear it. "What help?" Yes, she had to have help. She had to have his help if she was going to free her people. But how could she? How could he? It should be impossible. It was impossible. It wasn't impossible. She could do it. But if only she could think. Something was making it so hard to think!

He held out his hand. In it was a small silver device, rectangular, having on it many tiny controls. She had seen it only a half hour before, strapped to the wrist of the woman who bore her face. She tried to pull her hand away. The woman who had worn this had tried to shoot her! Something was wrong!

"Nyas! Suur saf sei?" She tried to shake off the feeling, but could not. "What that is?" It was like trying to think through soup, as if her brain were immersed in something that held her thoughts back, slowed them, would not let her drive them nor let them drive her.

"It is a chronotran; a temporal transporter. With it, you can reach Aura, and with this you can save your people." He handed her a holstered phase pistol, the fitted pouch on a short strap which would wrap about her arm. She realized, with a distant part of her mind, that she should have felt shocked to see it in his hands, but for some reason could not mount the distress the sight warranted.

This was the phase pistol the other had aimed at her! It had to be. How else could she have gotten it? She could not resist as he raised the left sleeve of her long, flowing garment and attached the straps of the holster to her upper arm, his eyes never leaving hers.

This was wrong! She had to stop this. She could free her people with this. She would free them. No, she couldn't! It wasn't possible! But it had to be. It had to be, because she had to save them. She was the only one who could save them! She had to!

Her hand actually came out of its own volition; or so it seemed to her increasingly muddled mind; and she touched it. She couldn't believe she had it strapped to her arm, even after touching it. But she needed it. She couldn't free her people without it. She had to have it, to use it, to free her people with it!

His eyes stayed locked on hers, and she really wanted to resist as he strapped the small silver device to her left wrist. She did not want it there; not when she had seen it on her doppelganger's wrist, but she couldn't summon the will to resist him, or to take it off. She didn't want it off. She needed it. She had to use it to free her people. Free them. Save them. She had to save her people!

Her hands just would not move. She couldn't even really look at the thing. It was like she was seeing everything peripherally, her golden eyes glued to his blue ones. "This will give you the power to go anywhere, do anything. You can stop the Silurians. You can free your people. You can be the savior of your race."

"Avinyaan." She whispered. "Li caalyuau cassau misa. Li caalyuau cassau yue." She could not even think to translate 'I save them can. I save them will.'

"Yes."

"Riid?" She only managed, with great effort, to get the sigh out, wanting to ask 'how?' He pointed to a particular control.

"It's already programmed. Just push that button."

"Daai." She sighed.

xx

"Shar-les, you me must help!" She clung to his arm desperately, her legs useless. She couldn't even take a step yet!

"Help you how?" This was worse than madness. This was Tia, but...

"Vlis re! Oh, I mean 'stop her'! Stop her! Being seduced she is."

"What?"

"Seduced! Lied to! Wanted I my people to help, but failed I did! Prevented the first contact with the 'klusert ku vorklis' I did, but killing them by!" Trip would have pulled back in horror had she not clung to his arms. She looked at Archer, not releasing her grip on Tucker, imploring his help, his understanding. "Used I the phase pistol he me gave. Tried I the first encounter with the Relatui to stop did, tell them what happen did, but believe me they did not. Ignored me they did. Agree to let the Silurians come they did!

"Killed the first ones I did, right in the Relatu's chamber! But revenge they took! From space destroyed city after city until comply we would. Comply many did, but all not! For months we fought, but time after time cities they destroyed! Thousands they killed! Millions! It worse than the first time was! Doomed my people I did!"

The Enterprise crew was speechless with horror. She grasped Archer's arm, imploring his understanding. "Fought for months I did, trained those I could against those who to the surface came to enslave us, but failed I did! Then came to me someone did, someone who say he you know him do!" Her words, barely remembered, were growing even more fractured in her distress. "'Daniels' he his name did say is. Repaired he the damaged 'chronotran'; program he it did. One chance he gave! Go the time 'before' agree I did to. I myself stop from agreeing must!"

xx

Tia, unable despite her best efforts to take her eyes from the man's, reached to touch the indicated control with her fingertip.

xx

Tia turned to the stunned Charles Tucker, pleading. "I her stop must! Tried stun I her to did, take her place, refuse his offer! But now we her stop mu

x x x x x x

Commander Charles Tucker handed the status board back to T'Pol. They stood together on the platform that accessed the main control panel of the Warp 5 engine. "Well, you can tell the Cap'n everything's ship-shape down here. We're ready to go whenever he is." He told the First Officer.

"Fortunately, the Captain and Lieutenant Reed were able to retrieve the missing communicator, other instruments and the results of the medical exam without any casualties." Tucker tried to avoid glaring at her.

"If that's what you call it. We barely got there in time to get their necks out of nooses."

"But we did succeed, however." She told him, trying with her tone to extend a compliment she would likely never say aloud. It was only by his contribution to the mission that it had succeeded.

"I'm just glad the cloak on that Suliban cell ship held together long enough."

"Indeed." It was the closest to gratitude he supposed the woman was likely ever to come.

"I guess this is going to be the beginning of a whole new bunch of safety regulations. We can't be losing technology on primitive planets."

"No. The consequences are quite severe." Trip looked at her, wondering if her understatement was an attempt at levity. He decided it was not. "I'll bring your report to the Captain."

"See you around." He could not resist the colloquialism, just for the opportunity to see the expression that greeted it. Sometimes, he thought, it was unfair how easy it was to throw her off.

T'Pol nodded; descending backward down the ladder. Trip watched her turn and walk away, taking a moment to enjoy an unobserved look at the trim Vulcan woman. 'Malcolm's right about one thing, though.' He thought as she walked out the door. 'She sure does have a nice bum.'


	4. Alternatives

"Captain's Star Log, supplemental. It has been several hours since Lieutenant Reed and I were rescued from the planet's surface by Commander Tucker, Sub-Commander T'Pol and Ensign Mayweather. Their use of the previously captured Suliban cell ship and its cloaking device resulted in no further physical evidence to contaminate the indigenous culture.

"However, though efforts were made to minimize the exposure of a technologically advanced alien race, we were unable to avoid affecting the balance of power in that civilization. As a result of our presence and exposure, they now believe their nearest neighbor, the 'Alliance', is capable of creating mutated soldiers, coherent energy weapons and invisible vehicles. Only time will tell how our influence has affected this society and its development. "I hold myself to blame for all of the damage.

"I am implementing a new series of controls over future landing party procedures, to make certain this type of thing does not happen again. This time we got away without any fatalities, but it is still a very bad situation." He turned off the recorder, sitting back in his Ready Room chair and closing his eyes.

"I'm afraid you have no idea how bad the situation is, Captain."

Archer's eyes snapped open at the unexpected intrusion, seeing a familiar figure before him. He had not expected to see this man again, and frankly he could have gone the rest of his life without doing so. The last time he had, he had been transported 1,000 years into the future ahead to a dead Earth, and had come forcibly to understand that it was his actions, and those of others, that had killed a world, a future, a hope. It was a sobering thought indeed.

The man who stood before him again was not particularly tall; his most notable feature was piercing, discerning eyes that seemed to hold a wealth of knowledge and experience. He appeared to be about 35 years old; though Archer was certain this was misleading. When he first knew him, the man had been masquerading as a Steward aboard Enterprise. Now he wore a black ribbed uniform of undetermined (read 'secret') origin, and an air of mystery like a cloak. "Well, I'll be damned."

"I hope not, Captain. We need you at your best." Former-Crewman Daniels told him.

"Well, what is it this time?" He asked, leaning back in his chair, trying to adopt a blas manner. "Revolt in the Klingon Empire? Silik and the Suliban making more trouble in your Cold War? The Andorians still upset over that listening post at P'Jem? You know, it's been some time since we've seen you. I was hoping things were going to quiet down."

"Actually, Captain, it's been about five weeks, but the fact that you cannot remember that is just one facet of the problem." The dismissive manner Archer had been trying to adopt evaporated. He stopped leaning back in this chair and faced the man with full attention.

"Five weeks?"

"Since the incident at Vendikar." The word meant nothing to Archer. "Eminiar VIII?" Still nothing. "Well, it and Eminiar VII are now lifeless fragments of their former selves." A chill washed through Archer's body at the bald description of a concept too devastating to take in. Two whole planets, dead? Destroyed? Two planets he seemed to be expected to know, but had never heard of? "Regrettably, they are not the only ones."

"What can we do?" Archer asked in a dead voice, distress washing over him and kept at bay only by strict discipline. The image of Earth, wreaked crumbling buildings and destruction for as far as the eye could see came back to him with horrible vividness. He worked to push it down, to focus on the situation.

"I'm afraid this time I have to speak to your command crew as well as yourself. This is larger than the usual matters I can brief you on."

"The Time Line's been damaged?" He tried to keep his voice level, fearing the worst. Maybe the planet below, despite his best efforts at 'damage control', was in the future a burned out, blasted wreck; all because of the Enterprise's presence.

Daniels shook his head. "No, Captain, the Time Line's been devastated."

x

On the Bridge of the massive starship, the Temporal Agent was in a very unfamiliar state indeed. Through his entire career, he had made a consistent effort to keep others from learning of his duties, his orders and missions; even of his existence. Now he was in the odd position of having to reveal a massive amount of information in order to set the Time Line back to normal. This was something that, if he was right, Jonathan Archer could not accomplish, yet it would take his approval for the one best suited to succeed to even act. But before then, there was much he had to do to convince these people that they should do something they would fundamentally not wish to do!

His foes had indeed scored a major blow, in some senses even worse than the 'destruction' of Earth, since so many other planets were involved. He needed the combined talents of these special men and women if he was going to be able to correct the devastation that had already occurred. And the very people who were needed to accomplish this task were, he knew, going to be his greatest obstacle.

He stood now before the pilot station, facing the Command crew of a starship whose destiny was nothing short of historic; men and women who faced a combined future of great triumph and greater tragedy. He had to be very careful which one he brought about.

"The information I have to impart involves things that I am unable to prove through anything in your history or experience, because the very existence of the physical evidence that could substantiate my claims has been obliterated. Thus, I must ask you to take certain things I am going to reveal on faith, rather than science."

"If that's your plan, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong crew." Archer warned him from his command chair.

"Indeed." T'Pol seconded from the Science Station to Daniels' right.

"I hope not. My experience with this crew is that you are able to open yourselves up to new possibilities; though I have to admit that some of them have been disrupted along with the Proper Time Line."

"Proper Time Line." Trip Tucker repeated from his position near Tactical, having picked up on the verbal capitals. "What is that?"

"Who's to say that this one is not the right one?" Travis Mayweather asked from the pilot seat before him.

"Yeah." Trip continued. "What is the 'Proper' Time Line?"

x

Daniels could feel the situation already slipping out of his control. He knew he had to get it back quickly, or he was lost. "Captain, do you recall a mission to Beta Aragon III?" Archer nodded; a sour expression on his face. It was not one of his more illustrious moments.

"We were sent by Starfleet to negotiate a treaty and try to arrange mining rights for the planet's tremendous supply of dilithium."

"Did you get it?"

"No. The Aragons had this test of our motives. I was ordered by Starfleet to get the treaty at all costs. I failed their test."

"In my history, you succeeded. The treaty you signed will last at least two generations."

He thought it over. "Well, that's gratifying, but hardly overwhelming. We'll find dilithium elsewhere. Maybe not as much, or as easily attained, but we will find some."

Daniels looked at Hoshi. "Tell me about Elizabeth Cutler?"

The woman was taken aback for a moment. "Liz?" She shrugged. "There's not much to tell. She transferred off Enterprise about four months ago. She..." She glanced at Phlox, who stood with Tucker near Malcolm Reed, wondering how carefully she could phrase this. "She had...hopes...that she was unable to attain. Last I heard; she's serving on a Scientific Research Station."

"Yes. Cold Station 12. You'll encounter her again, though briefly and not in person, about two years from now. She will be enmeshed in a hostage negotiation between a Dr. Arik Soong, his Augmented 'children' and yourselves.

"She will die from forced exposure to Symbalene Blood Burn'."

x

He watched the shocked reaction spread across the bridge. All had known the woman, many had worked closely with her, and all would regret her death. Those like Phlox, who knew the details of the Symbalene Blood Burn, were even more deeply affected by the image of the friendly and personable young woman torn apart internally by the fearful pathogen. "In fact, in the 'Proper' Time Line, it is another Researcher who dies, since Elizabeth Cutler had never left Enterprise.

"She has, in fact, been involved in a different relationship than the one you mentioned and, though she is not yet aware of it, she is at this moment pregnant.

"Her child, Michael Cein will, 32 years hence, make a major contribution toward the success of treaty negotiations with the Tholian Assembly."

x

Daniels particularly watched Hoshi Sato's reactions. They were the most open of all, and he recalled the two women had been good friends for a long time. This was more so in the 'Proper' Time Line, but even here they had a history together as close friends. He could probably count on her being his strongest backer in convincing Jonathan to intervene in this history, as he had serious doubts of his chances of success without swaying several of the Enterprise crew to his side.

He could see the toll these revelations were taking on them, and wished he could leave it at that. However, there was far more to reveal if he was going to obtain their motivated help.

"Captain, what do you know of Cygnet XIV?"

Archer thought about it for a moment. "Nothing." Then he forced himself to ask a question he really did not want to ask. "Should I know about it?"

"Definitely. You make First Contact with a significantly advanced race from that world, the Bravinan, while visiting another planet, Caldis III. You cede possession of that world to the Bravinan colonization contingent in exchange for advanced interactive computer technology that will revolutionize your people's exploration of the stars. Without it, your exploration will be considerably hampered. Oh, it will take place, but at a significantly slower pace."

Archer glanced at Trip, who did nothing to hide his impressed feelings. He turned back to Daniels. "Interactive?"

"Yes. It will take the resources, many years from now, of a scientist named Richard Daystrom to truly comprehend what he will come to call 'duotronics', and to fully apply them to Earth's computer technology. The breakthrough in computer technology will be his, but the inspiration will come from the extremely complex information provided by the Bravinan people, information so complex that you will not be using the full extent of it in your lifetimes."

"And for this I gave them a planet?" Archer did not know if he should be impressed or dubious.

"You considered it an excellent investment at the time." "So, why didn't I meet them?"

"That is because of a long chain of circumstances. All of the incidents I cited occurred because of the presence of a member of your crew who is not present in this continuum. She joined your ship, in the Proper Time Line, nine months ago, and your decisions which were influenced by her presence and contribution to your crew resulted in your being in the places I cited at the key times. I'm sure you can appreciate how the presence or absence of individuals can affect circumstances, can cause changes in personal relationships, can give input on command decisions, et cetera.

"On Beta Aragon III, her insight at a key moment allowed you to find the key you needed to solve the 'puzzle' the Aragons presented.

"Elizabeth Cutler did not leave your crew four months ago because she developed a friendship with this person at a time when her decision to leave or stay was at its greatest point of flux. She stayed long enough for another person's influence to have a major effect upon her life. She is therefore not doomed to die, in the Proper Time Line, two years hence. She will, in fact, live to see her grandchildren.

"Though this added crewperson did not influence your being in the vicinity of the Eminiar system, small changes in circumstances over many weeks did have you nearby, not at the far side of the sector.

"Without her presence, you followed a different path and were elsewhere when each of the incidents took place. You were, in fact, some 85 parsecs out of position, and on a different course, so you did not visit Caldis III at the key time to meet the Cygnet XIV, or 'Bravinan', colonists. There is a colony on that planet now, but their presence had nothing to do with your negotiation, so you derive no benefit from it."

x

"What caused all this?" Trip Tucker demanded from near Reed's Tactical station, unable to stand much more. Daniels addressed him directly; for this was the moment he had been leading up to.

"Actually, the pivotal event that disrupted the time line involves your wife; and her journey sixty-six terrestrial years into the past of her own planet, known as Aura, in an attempt to—."

"Wait a cott'n pickin' minute!" Tucker exclaimed, silencing the man. "I'm not married!"

Daniels nodded, conceding the point. "That's true. Even in the Proper Time Line you are not married. Yet. You will be, however. And in a little more than two years your children, Charles IV and..."

"Hold it!" Trip started across the bridge, advancing on the man, the better to emphasize the point as he came around the pilot station. "I'm—not—married!"

When Tucker was close enough, Daniels held out a PADD, which was already activated. Trip took it, looking at the image displayed on the small screen, and was instantly silenced. "This PADD contains all the pertinent information you need." As Trip stared at the unfamiliar face on the screen, Daniels reached across Travis Mayweather's board. "If I may, Ensign?" He touched a few controls, and the image on the PADD was displayed in full size on the huge viewscreen.

Trip looked at the larger image, which showed a young woman apparently in her late twenties, with long golden hair that flowed down her back past her waist. She had a stunning—in fact; astonishing—golden complexion and equally startling golden eyes. "Tia Anlor, a native of the planet Aura; presently 22 Earth or 19 Auran years old—."

"That is most unlikely." T'Pol interjected from her station, cutting him off and seizing the bridge's attention. "When you first mentioned Aura I accessed the Vulcan Star Charts. The planet Aura, at coordinates 179-080-109-758, was devastated in a war with the Silurian Empire over 60 years ago. Its people were annihilated.

"The Auran race is extinct."


	5. Home And Lost

When Tia Anlor touched the activation button on the temporal device strapped to her wrist, her quarters on Enterprise vanished from around her and she stared in shocked disbelief at that which replaced the small room. She stood on a white gravel walkway which followed a meandering path that emphasized a vast garden on either side of her. One could not reach either the street behind her or the tremendous building before her without giving considerable attention to a wide variety of flowers and blossoming trees.

She was absolutely astonished to recognize that the huge structure constructed of white stone that gleamed in the afternoon sun was the Pryndonitan, the administrative building that was the residence and offices of the Principal Relatu in the city of Zaslani, over eight hundred valyris from her own home city of Pastuu.

This was the Administrative Center for the Losban Nation. This was the place where the first delegation of Silurians had met over sixty palyis ago with the head of her nation; the place where the 'Treaty of Friendship' had been negotiated and signed; the place where everything had gone wrong!

Tia realized almost immediately that she could think clearly again. Whatever influence that unnamed man had had on her mind was gone now that she was no longer in his presence. Of course, she was now in the past, or seemed to be, and so it did not matter how much influence he exerted upon her. That was over; she was here.

Amazed, not having believed that the device on her wrist could have taken her anywhere, she looked about, careful of any trickery. She turned now, looking behind her. She stood on a path cutting a series of gentle curves through a large garden stretching from the street to the Pryndonitan, and from one end of the vast, street-wide structure to the other. About her, the familiar blue-green grass had been freshly mown, its honey-like scent filling the air, and varieties of flowers she had not seen in nearly a year; had despaired of ever seeing again; fluttered in the gentle breeze, their colors shaming the spectrum itself!

There are many people walking on the street before her, going about their business. They were dressed casually, with utter disregard for fashions or 'requirements' of dress, as these things did not exist on Aura. Many of the women wore the long, flowing fashions, or the shorter ones she especially favored.

She had longed for some of the floral styles again, especially those made of klinzt, which earthly 'silk' could not approach for luxurious softness; to feel their freedom on her body. Looking down at her own clothing of Risan 'silk', she felt vastly 'underdressed', a concept Liz had introduced her to; which before this moment had been incomprehensibly silly, but now suddenly meant something. At the first opportunity, she would dispense with this Risan garment, attractive as it was, in favor of a proper vuslin, or perhaps a mulrynwaq. Perhaps she would go beyond her limits, and treat herself to an elegant liyentuin.

But then reality brought her up short. She could 'treat' herself to nothing. She did not even have a dulapol to her name, not even a maspol. She grinned at the irony of the situation; she'd taken no money with her in her mad dash to the Krontis, and on Enterprise she had no use for it at all. Now that she was home, she literally had nothing but the Risan gown she wore—and that had been bought by Hoshi and Liz!

But then this momentary lapse into nostalgia was pushed away by yet another realization. Not one person in sight had pink, brown or green skin!

They were Aurans all, as she was.

And unlike this morning, this was not a dream!

She was Home!

x

Reality set in after a long, stunned delay as she came to understand that she was home, and the emotional impact struck her. 'Refugee', a human word, she had come to accept that she would never again see her home, and suddenly she was standing upon it, on a planet she had believed she would never set foot upon again! She had come to accept her life on Enterprise because it was the only one there was for her, and she loved its myriad and distinct joys. Now she was home!

She was thrilled, ecstatic; there was no word in Auran or English for how she felt! She felt her heart would burst in her chest for joy which simply could not be contained. She wanted to scream, to shriek for joy! Only her realization that she could not explain her outburst held it in.

Looking up into the daytime sky, she saw in the violet heavens the tremendous red gas giant Sabaoth, which took up a huge arc of the sky, its wide-flung rings displaying every color of the visible spectrum in wonderful disregard for regularity other than its own. It was vastly distant, over two and a quarter million valyris; but it and Aura circled one another in stable binary orbit about the far more distant white star Ealus. So much larger was the ringed gas giant that in the daytime its reflected light bathed Aura with its ruddy glow, enough to cast its own shadows on the brightest of days. The daytime sky was blue when Sabaoth was not fully visible above the horizon; and when seen in the night sky the true blackness of space was unknown. The planets' elliptical orbits were such that sometimes the tremendous rings were seen from above, sometimes from below, sometimes almost invisible if seen edge on, always presenting different aspects as its colors changed hue and intensity.

It had always seemed ironic to her that that world represented 'Lord Sabaoth the Unchanging'; since change was its most prominent feature.

She had missed Sabaoth's comforting presence as much as she had Aura itself!

She started to laugh, as quietly as she could. The joy simply could not be contained! She thought she would explode in ecstasy!

She became aware that her cheeks were wet, and she raised a hand to her face, surprised, touching the trail of tears. She realized her joy was so intense her body was 'shorting out', as Charles would say. She did not care!

Suddenly she was aware of a presence behind her. She turned, looking up at a tall golden man who had obviously exited the Pryndonitan. She had been blocking his way on the narrow winding path. She was about to turn away, to quickly rub the tears from her face, but she remembered in time that this care was a symptom of the Occupation, one she was there to destroy forever! "::Beautiful Sabaoth today is.::" He said, having noted her upward gaze. He spoke to her with a distinct Juliksu accent. She had thought she would never hear it again!

"::Beautiful.::" Tia tried to say, but her voice cracked and suddenly she could not stop the tears. She did not even realize how it happened that she was pressed to this tall stranger, her face buried into his chest as she began to weep.

The man, whose name she did not even know, put his arms about Tia and held her as she pressed her face to his chest, sobbing. Her emotions, strained by all that had happened that morning on Enterprise, then overloaded by the realization that, impossible though it was, she was home, had shattered completely, and no matter how hard she tried she could not contain them! After nearly an Auran year, in which she believed she would never see her world again, she was no longer a 'refugee', no longer stranded and lost in space. She was no longer anything bad. She was Home!

The violence of her emotion surprised even her as she wailed, her heart breaking as she wept, her entire body wracked with the overpowering emotions as she stood in the arms of a perfect stranger and cried nearly a year's worth of tears she could not hold.

"::Why cry you do, when you happy are?::" He asked as he patted her back. It felt so good that she did not have to tell him she was happy, but a part of her mind; one conditioned by training in the Muutuur; an 'underground' that did not yet exist; urged caution.

"::It because is happy I am that cry I do.::" She answered truthfully when, a long time later, she could speak. She looked up into his golden eyes. "::Thought to see I this place again would never! Gone I a long time was.::"

"::Where were you?::" She was about to shrug, but stopped herself. Bad habits had to be watched out for!

"::I know not.::" She admitted, but then turned and walked away as quickly as she could, having no idea where she would go; just away! She knew it was shockingly rude, in Auran and even human manners, but he was about to start asking questions she could not answer.

xxxxx

T'Pol's announcement hung in the air, none of those present knowing exactly how they should feel about it. The image on the screen, though of an extremely attractive young woman, was still that of a stranger. Each of the crew was, to some degree, vaguely sorry she was dead, but there was no emotional content to it.

As they came to more fully appreciate that this was—somehow—Trip's wife, they felt a touch of sympathy for their friend; but he knew her no more or better than anyone else.

She looked like a nice, apparently physiologically unique, young woman. She'd tried in some way to change the history of her planet, and she and the rest of her people were dead. They tried not to draw any conclusions beyond that. Jonathan Archer, knowing his friend as he did, was not astonished to hear that the man had fallen for a non-human. He'd done it before. Indeed, looking at the image on the screen, he had to admit that he respected Tucker's taste; but beyond that...

Beyond that, there was a Temporal Agent on his bridge; one he had, admittedly, grown to trust—to a point—but who was now telling a tale of gloom and doom that seemed to focus on Trip Tucker's 'wife'.

'When will the universe stop driving me mad?' He thought imploringly. "All right. Are you telling us that this woman is some focal point in time?"

"No, Captain, not at all. Of herself she is no more significant to the Time Line than is your Chef. However, in a closed community like this one is, the presence or absence of 1/85th of your total number of crewmen has an exaggerated effect upon the chain of circumstances. She had no effect, for instance, on your course on any occasion other than the day you found her, when Enterprise diverted from its original heading when you responded to sensor readings of a derelict ship.

"But where personal influence of one out of eighty-five is greater than that of one in five million, in the case of several of you, the personal influence was quite marked."

"I'll say so," Trip agreed feelingly, "if I was going to marry this woman!"

"So!" Archer said sharply, trying to regain the course of the conversation. "Beyond the changes to Beta Aragon III, Caldis III, Eminiar VII and VIII and Aura, what aren't you telling us?"

"I'm sorry, Captain?"

"You want us to stop whatever happened to Aura and two other planets, get treaties with another two, and presumably return Trip's wife to him—."

"Cap'n!" Tucker exclaimed, unable to keep the distress out of his voice. He had been trying to divide his attention between the important conversation and the stunningly compelling information on the PADD.

"Sorry, Trip." He'd forgotten just how particularly shaken his friend had to be. He returned his attention to Daniels. "Those are laudable intentions. Certainly saving the populations of three planets, to say nothing of the rest, is something everyone on this ship would get behind. But what's the down side?"

"The 'down side' is that much of what you recall of the past eight and a half months will either happen very differently or not happen at all, and different events will be substituted in their places. Some things will not change at all, others will change a little and some will be completely different."

"What things? And how?"

Daniels held out another PADD. "This, from the Protected Archives, contains the Logs of the Enterprise for the past nine months. You'll want to study them and compare them with your own memories and logs." Archer took the PADD, stepped over to the Science Station and handed it to T'Pol.

"Download this for access by all Senior Staff."

"Yes, sir."

"The PADD I gave Commander Tucker contains extensive personal information." He did not have to elaborate. It would contain all that was available on Trip's many months with the woman who was to become his wife. "You'll need all this to make your decision."

"I won't guarantee I come to the decision you hope for."

"I know. I'll return when the decision has been made."

"How will you know that?" Daniels gave him a curious half-smile.

"I'll know."

xxxxx

Tia went far enough to the corner to be sure that the man who had sought to comfort her was gone; then doubled back. Much as she wanted to spend the day, the week, the month, looking about this capital city; much as she wanted to find some way to travel 800 valyris to her home in Pastuu—even knowing it would not be built for nearly thirty palyis—she knew she had a duty to perform. This was why she was here, and she had absolutely no idea how long she had.

That she was here before the Silurians she was sure. Whether her mysterious benefactor had allotted her ten days, ten hours or ten minutes she had no clue. Best, she decided, not to waste any of them.

Returning to the front of the building, trying as best she could to refrain from hugging everyone she passed along the way, a human gesture she could barely resist, she stood on the sidewalk across the wide garden from the massive white structure. The Pryndonitan took up the whole square, set inside the garden which surrounded it. Images from Enterprise of places like the 'Buckingham' palace in England only approached this white marble structure for grandeur. It was almost a thousand palyis old, and so preserved it should stand another thousand in its magnificence.

The marble was the rarest stone on Aura. A millennium ago this building contained virtually all there was on the continent. It had represented the height of splendor. It is true that, since then, more of the rare stone had been found and used in other public structures scattered over the world, but for sheer impressiveness nothing could approach this building.

It was modestly decorated and accented in gold, which also shone dazzlingly in the bright sunlight. Soon it would be stripped of the almost worthless metal by the avaricious Silurians, who actually damaged the precious stone in their efforts to gather their prize. Even today she could still not imagine what value other races put in it; that they could be willing to kill or die for a useless metal which was so soft it had to be combined with other metals just to give it some strength.

But for today she considered herself lucky to see the Pryndonitan in its original grandeur, as it had been meant to be seen, almost blinding to the eye with its precious marble and even its golden highlighting.

She started across the winding white gravel, her attention as much on the multitude of flowering plants which were the intended focus of this meandering path to the administrative building. For a moment she reflected on the residence and administrative center of her own city, which was completely devoid of any marble at all save for the traditional keystone of the arch over the door, but was also surrounded by a sea of Aura's natural beauty, an attempt to remind all of what was important in their lives. That one white keystone in the arch symbolized that building's connection with this massive central structure; but for the moment even the nostalgic thought of her home city's center could not detract from the impressiveness of this moment as she approached, by several stages, her destination.

As she reached the doors, looking up at the top of the tremendous carved structure, she felt infinitesimal indeed. It rose to at least three hundred val tall, with ornately carved towers that stretched to touch the violet sky! Pulling open the door, she stepped into the main public room, and went from infinitesimal to only tiny.

The room was so large it dwarfed anything within Enterprise, or any other room she had ever seen. It was literally the largest interior space that she had ever stood in, and the scale was daunting indeed! Her mind strove to take in the limits of the tremendous white chamber. The distant walls about her were carved as no Earth Cathedral ever approached, tastefully highlighted in common gold. The untarnishable metal was used for its effect, but did not diminish the grandeur at all.

The reception area was enclosed in a low, waist high wall, and was about a hundred square val, about thirty human 'feet' to a side; tiny compared to the offices and work areas that surrounded it and not crowded at all. Bracing herself, trying not to look like she was as nervous as she felt, Tia strode up to the main desk. The woman seated behind it looked up at her. "::May I you help?::"

"::Speak I the Relatu need to. Urgent news I him bring.::"

The woman turned to her computer. "::What your name is?::"

"::T-.::" Tia bit it back sharply. "::Misala Anlor of Pastuu.::" She lied, giving her father's mother's name and praying she had the dates right! Her grandmother should be near her age now, maybe slightly older—she hoped! Her heart crept upward into her throat as the receptionist consulted the records, deciding the person named was an adult and thus was entitled to make the request.

The woman activated the intercom at her desk and began a cryptic series of terse statements with someone Tia could not hear, finally looking up. "::You the Relatu may for twenty piwu see.::"

Tia felt her heart slowly lower itself back to its wonted place. "Ealyiis." She said gratefully, heading to the indicated door at the rear of the room. She knew it would be quite a walk to actually reach the presence of the man she'd come so many miles and years to see, but it would be worth it. She was sure that what she had to say would make it the most interesting eighteen minutes of the man's life!


	6. Deaf Ears

Hoshi Sato sat in her quarters reviewing her files from Daniels' records. She, like the rest of Alpha Shift, had been given private time to study the staggering, sometimes shocking material presented to them about their 'alternate lives'.

The duty logs were dry as dust; she always kept her official logs to a bald statement of facts, leaving opinions and theory to others. Even so, they were interesting, sometimes because they were quite different from logs she remembered recording, sometimes because they were not.

There was in the record, however, a sub-directory which was locked. When she used her personal password however, it unlocked. This she found mildly interesting and vastly annoying, as this contained her personal logs, in total, for the past nine months!

She could not say she was happy that her personal logs were part of these 'Protected Archives', and resolved to 'discuss' it with Daniels the next time she laid hands on him.

In the meantime, the vast material presented to her made absolutely fascinating reading. It seemed that she, Elizabeth Cutler and this 'Tia Anlor' were virtually inseparable friends. She'd taught the alien girl how to speak English when she refused to depend upon the UT; indoctrinated her—with Liz's help—into the vast maze of human custom and behavior and learned a great deal as well of Auran manners and mores.

She was particularly glad to read that Liz Cutler had indeed not transferred off Enterprise as she remembered. Rather, their friendship had remained secure right up to the present, as testified by the last log entries.

She found the concept of 'Daasii' to be absolutely fascinating and something Earth really should adopt; the interference of the UESPA typically in character for those high-handed bureaucrats; the 'dasreer' something she would not wish on her worst enemy, especially as a recurring torment(!); the 'Luuru' stunning and she was sorry to have 'missed' this thoroughly amazing event; the 'show' Seamus O'Cathain (at least she was still with him in both realities!) conspired to present on the long trip to Caldis III a great deal of fun and the entire recitation of history to be considerably more interesting, or at least less hazardous, than the reality she remembered.

She decided she would speak to the Captain about going along with Daniels' request, if only to keep Liz 'safe' aboard Enterprise. She could not bear the thought of her friend dying, especially in so horrendous a manner; and if this would keep her alive, to say nothing of happy and pregnant (still a shock!), then that was what Hoshi would do!

Thereafter, she would throttle Daniels!

xxxxx

After passing through the huge outer room surrounding the reception area, the multitude of desks within seeming to go on forever, she went out a door in the back and had to get through several corridors and two more rooms before she found herself in the presence of the leader of her homeland. She thought she was somewhere in the middle of the building; certainly it felt like she had walked that far, but finally she had arrived. The woman in the outer office had been expecting her and opened the door, admitting her into the presence of their Chief Executive.

This was still easier than she imagined it would be; certainly more so than accomplishing the same feat on Earth. Here there were not the 'fifty levels of bureaucracy' Charles was wont to rail against, comparing it to his race's 'nine levels of hell'. Here, if an adult needed to see someone in the government, even up to the Relatu himself, and it was possible to arrange some time, they would be seen.

Tia thanked Aura that this tradition had not yet fallen!

x

As the door closed behind her, she found herself in a room with the country's chief executive, and for an instant her nerve failed her. The room was not designed to intimidate visitors, but intimidation was just what she felt. She had never even met the Relatu of her home city; now to be in the presence of the nation's leader was overwhelming. She tried to keep focused on her mission, even while taking in the impressive surroundings.

The room was white marble, as indeed all had been, but it was no more monochrome than any other room had been. The thick carpet was a soothing light brown, the upholstered chairs were asrikro wood trimmed in pale green. In the far left corner stood a banner; the multihued insignia of the Losban nation.

Several portraits of past notable Relatui decorated the walls. She recognized the first Relatu, Donaill (Do-nah'-ill), the famous woman's portrait being prominently displayed. She had been the first Relatu of the then infant nation, and had served a staggering fourteen terms, her entire adult life, and only death at the extreme age of 104 had cut off an 'Election by Acclamation' to a fifteenth five palyis term!

The man seated behind the large asrikro desk waiting for her was perhaps fifty palyis old. He was tall, thin but in very good health indeed, something that did not count against him in the last election; at least not with the women's vote. He was, she recalled from history, a capable and confident leader, intelligent and strong willed, but fair and thoughtful.

She had not believed, did not believe, the almost universal contempt and distain in which his memory was held. It is true that, under his Administration, First Contact had been established; that in this time it became known to a race on the first steps of the exploration of space that there was definitely life beyond this sphere; and that in this room the 'Treaty of Friendship' had been signed.

Was it his fault that the 'Treaty of Friendship' had evolved into a yoke of Slavery that had bourn down and killed so many of her race, and reduced the population of a world to decades of torment, misery and death? She did not know.

She was only there to make sure that it never happened!

x

"::Yes? What may I you for do?::"

Tia approached the large desk, trying her best to pretend she was confident, but inside her everything was shaking. "::I you must of a great danger tell. You may believe not, but I you ask to me heed.::"

"::What danger?::"

She knew that in this day the Auran Space Program was in its infancy. Under Silurian occupation it never did develop, but today there was no proof that life existed outside the sphere. Auran ships had never done more than circle Sabaoth and study the massive gas giant. To reach another planet was years off; and she had to warn this man that living beings from another planet were going to visit Aura, make 'friends' with them and then betray their entire race!

She knew of only one way—that which Charles had expressed over all others—and that was to tell the truth. Offering a quick prayer and plea to Aura and Sabaoth, she began to tell him the truth.

"::You contacted by an alien race soon will be; the Silurians. They from another world are, and they say 'friends' they wish to be. They lie will. They to gather gold from us will want. They will friendship offer, among other things. But they to take all our gold will want, and soon enslave us will, to us mine it make. Soon, when what can be reached is gone, it they from our bodies they will demand to take, and into slaves us in our homes will make.::"

The Relatu stared up at her from his seat and said nothing. His expression, however, made his inner thoughts crystal clear.

'Well, Shar-les,' she thought bleakly, 'as say you would; 'so much for the truth'.'

xxxxx

"You wanted to see me, Captain?" Daniels asked from before Archer's desk, startling him. One moment Archer was alone, reviewing his options, the next the Temporal Agent was standing in front of him.

"I want you to knock next time." He replied irritably.

"I'm sorry, Captain."

"What is this? Do you know from your history books the time I'm going to want to talk to you and just pop over to those temporal coordinates?"

"Yes."

Archer could not help but smile at the simple and honest answer. "All right. Then you probably know what I'm going to say."

"Not really. Those things are so variable they cannot be pinned down in the future of any time line. Only when it becomes the past do I know what you are going to say, not before. In fact, that's why I didn't know you were going to cold-cock me last time we met."

"I don't remember that." He had no memory of having done it; but the 'last time' they had met, according to Daniels' history, had been during the incident of the Eminiar system, something he did not remember at all, as to him it had not happened.

"I'll never forget."

"I'll bet." He pushed back from his desk, looking up at the Temporal Agent. "I need more."

"What more?"

He looked at the information spread out on the various monitors in the room. "I need to know the consequences of what will happen if I do what you want. You've told me some of what has been undone; I know what has been done in its stead. I need more."

"Again, what more?"

"I need the future. As much as I now know about the past and the present, the 'what was' and the 'what is', I need to know the 'what will be'."

Daniels hesitated, torn between a desire to tell and a need to conceal. "Have you any idea how classified that is?"

"No. I only know that you will give it to me."

xx

"He's provided a staggering list of wonders and advances, and I'm not insensible to that." Archer told his Command Crew around the Situation Monitor in the rear of the Bridge an hour later. "But we're talking about nearly nine months. Not only does he want to affect things that happened on this ship, but events that affect entire worlds. In some cases they will be improved—hell, three planets whose populations have presently been annihilated will be restored! We're talking tens of billions of people, and God knows how many generations to come. Just on that alone, I would be inclined to say 'let's do it'!" He paused, looking at each of his officers in turn, gauging their reactions to all they had learned, and all they had yet to learn.

"He's also offering three other planets which will be strongly affected by what we do. We'll gain a two generation treaty with Beta Aragon, and access to a tremendous supply of dilithium, which will help our warp research dramatically. If I'm right, our ships might actually cruise at warp six for virtually unlimited times, and reach warp nine! And we'll be affecting Cygnet XIV's, or Bravina's, colonization of Caldis III; a fait accompli that we had no hand in this time around, but which we will gain tremendous scientific clues and technology in the 'other' time line. But is it for the better or the worse? I don't know.

"Also, one of my crew we can keep on board and not watch die two years from now. The name Daniels mentioned; we have a crewmember in Security with that same last name. Apparently Elizabeth Cutler Cein lives a long life, and I can hope a full and happy one. She has a son and grandchildren; who knows what else? We did learn her son has a key role to play in a treaty with the Tholians."

The men and women standing before him kept their silence, but he could see the depth of his words upon them.

x

"But then I have to look at the other side of the coin. Over the past nine months we've spent out here, we've done a lot. How many things will be changed, and to what effect? If we were out of position to do good in the Time Line he would have us restore, what good have we done here and now that will be undone by us being 'elsewhere' at a 'key moment'?"

"I wish we could know that, but is it really possible?" Malcolm asked.

"Daniels has given us files and logs, and quite frankly the differences between some of them scare the hell out of me! Some things I do remember as described. Others I've never heard of, but I checked the dates and found some things that don't match. I wish I could say we were just exploring on the dates when tremendous things allegedly happened, but while that did sometimes happen, that's not always the way it is. There are going to be changes!"

"Quite a lot, I imagine." Trip agreed emphatically.

"But then I have to consider the point in terms of lives. How many are going to die that didn't, if I am going to undo the destruction of three planets? And is it necessarily for the good?

"And there's more.

"Daniels tells me that this 'Tia Anlor' went back in time to try to stop a race known as the Silurians from enslaving her planet. Obviously, she failed. Instead of making them slaves, the Silurians killed every one of them.

Now, the question here is a moral one. Do they 'stay' dead, or do how many millions spend how many generations as slaves? Or worse; what if ten years from now the Silurians decide to kill everyone anyway? What benefit will I have given to them?"

He looked at Trip, but the man had nothing to say. Jonathan was sorry for this, for it was from his friend that he would gain the decisive insight. But for now, he forged ahead.

"I made him give me some more information in order to make my decision. Eminiar VII and VIII are at war, have been at war for over 400 years, and I understand have another 100 to go before they make peace. Thousands upon thousands not yet born are going to die in this war. Yet, in another 100 years, they are going to have peace. So do I look at the short picture of these potential victims or take the long view that eventually they'll stop fighting?

"He refused to tell me what Aura's ultimate fate will be, other than that the Silurians are so firmly entrenched there after more than half a century that they cannot be removed by and military means Starfleet has at its disposal.

"Also, what other things have happened in nine months? I'm not talking now about the gross changes affecting planetary populations or fates. I'm talking about the little things involving smaller populations. Maybe even one or two. If we are going to be responsible for the millions, we have to be responsible for the one or two as well."

No one had a definitive answer to offer. Dealing with gross details was one thing, to deal with the personal fates of one or more individuals was almost impossible to resolve.

xxxxx

It was a very long moment before the Relatu answered Tia's declaration and her long and (she hoped) compelling argument. But it was with a sinking heart that she found her apprehensions confirmed. When he had told her that if these supposed 'Silurians' wanted their worthless gold, they may take all they wish; she knew she was lost.

Gold was worthless. There was so much of it that Aurans valued it the way Charles and his people would value iron. Less, in fact; for iron could be used for building and the soft metal was useless even for that. It made pretty decorations, both personal and public, but other than that it was worthless. Even the jewel of office the Relatu wore, a lozenge shaped emblem in the center of which was a blue, multifaceted gemstone of the same shape, the golden 'backing' was only there to hold the stone in place. 'Radiating' from this large gem were eight smaller ones reaching from the stone to the other edge of the gold, four on each side, but the gold was only a setting, nothing more.

It was only with the advent of the Silurians that the Auran race was exposed to the concept of the abundant material having any value at all. They were, sadly, exposed to it as something that someone would be willing to struggle, enslave and kill for.

But today, that concept was still beyond anyone's imagination. Gold was so common that it was in everything, the ground, the plants, the blood; it was in every living thing. It and klinasy combined to carry oxygen to every cell of every living being, be it animal or sapient. It was one of the basic 'building blocks' of life, as Phlox would say. To these people it represented no value, and the desire for it represented no danger.

"::Relatu, you me believe must! The Silurians come will, and great danger they are!::"

"::Misala Anlor, I sorry am. Listened I to you have, but provide proof you do not. I your story of 'aliens' do unfounded find; though interesting it is. I to it shall all due consideration give, but until proof you offer, act upon it I can not.::"

"::But—.::"

"Dampris musila." He concluded, wishing her a 'good afternoon' with a finality she could not remember anyone on the Enterprise ever using to her.

She wished she had Wrenaouq Archer's experience. She was sure that the human never had the uncertainties she did, nor did so poor a job dealing with anyone!

"Dampris musila, Relatu." She repeated dejectedly. She had pressed her twenty piwu up to nearly an ascla, finally as time ran out again nearly begging the man to believe, to act upon her warning! But though she had a vast store of information she could prove absolutely none of it. She had told him how she knew, that she had come from years ahead, from an occupied and enslaved Aura, had escaped in a stolen Silurian warship with twenty of her fellows, and had been living for most of a year aboard a starship of the planet Earth.

She could even pinpoint the very moment when he had stopped believing her.

She had considered showing the only two pieces of physical evidence she had on her person, the chronotran and the phase pistol. But the only way to prove their use was to vanish into the time stream or shoot something; neither course likely to help her case.

She turned, crossing the room to the door, but just as she started to open it she turned. "::But come the Silurians will. And I here be will.::"

"::Until then.::" The man granted.

He would not have her thrown out of the building; the Pryndonitan was traditionally completely accessible to anyone. She was not behaving in a threatening manner. Indeed, he could sense she truly believed she wanted to help—even though she was utterly mad!


	7. Decision

"Cap'n?" Trip called softly from the doorway of the Ready Room, seeing his friend seated behind his desk, head back, eyes closed. Archer lowered his head, looking at the Chief Engineer. "You got a minute?"

"Apparently more of them than I've ever expected. Come in, Trip." As Tucker came into the room, Archer was hardly surprised to see that he was holding the PADD Daniels had given him. As his friend settled himself, Archer indicated invitingly the tall glass pitcher of iced tea and several glasses on the corner of his desk. He waited while the other poured a drink for himself and refilled his Captain's. "So..." He began, glancing at the PADD. "Interesting reading." It was not a question.

"I'll say. I thought there'd be a couple of months worth of stuff in here, bits and pieces, just enough to whet my appetite and get me to talk you into going along with Daniels' plans."

"Yes?" Archer asked, expecting exactly that.

Trip held up the device. "There are five years in here!"

"I guess Daniels believes in being thorough." He said, impressed. This was more than he had expected of the Temporal Agent. "Can't say I blame him; you are going to be carrying a lot of weight in my decision whether we do this or not." Tucker did not answer. "So, are we going to do it?" Archer asked, figuratively tossing his friend the ball.

Trip sat back heavily in his chair, wishing he could just remove his head and place it on a shelf somewhere. "God, I don't want to be the one who decides this!" He looked feelingly at his Captain. "If it were just me, if it didn't affect anyone else, anywhere..."

He leaned forward, saying emphatically; "It's weird. I'm told this woman is the love of my life. I read so many things here and I could almost feel it's true. I read my personal logs, and they're absolutely shocking! I won't tell you what's in them; I'm too stunned by all of it. I haven't even been able to read all the logs. It'll take hours to get through five years and I've had to take plenty of breaks between them already. Apparently, as Malcolm would say, I'm 'bum over teakettle' over this woman!

"There're loads of pictures in here, and most of them are Travis' work. I recognize his style. They show two versions of her, like she ages pretty fast at some point. I don't know, but I can tell you that it's recent. The images are dated. Something called the 'Luuru', where she goes from a 'girl' of about 19 of her planet's years to a 'woman'. Anyway; my point is that from the time the record begins there are a lot of shots of us together, virtually none apart."

He took a drink from his glass, wishing this time that it contained something considerably stronger than tea!

"Certainly she's gorgeous, but it's more than that. You know, she's supposedly the woman I am going to ask to marry me!" He looked at Archer, wishing the other man could somehow deny this. Of course, that was impossible. The whole point of this 'evaluation period', when they came down to it, was to decide whether or not to make it real.

"God, there are pictures in here of our Wedding! It takes place here on Enterprise; Mother McCabe officiates. You're Best Man, by the way."

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Tucker sat back in his chair as if collapsing into it. "Blast it; we had—will have—our Honeymoon in Florida! There are shots of my parents and Elizabeth at the Reception they threw for us. Will throw for us!" He took a long drink of tea, and then almost slammed the glass down.

"Damn it, there are pictures in here of my son and daughter! Twins! Charles the Fourth and Siaslin!"

x

But then he leaned forward, put the PADD down on the desk, sat back, and it seemed like all the fire had suddenly gone out of him.

"But I look at that PADD and I find it's almost like I'm in mourning for a woman I'll never know. I mean, I can read this and I can almost see us together, almost believe it all, but in the reality I know she was never born!

"In fact, in the reality Daniels would have us restore, she went back in time to her world before we got married, went to Florida, had kids—and she died there!

"Her race died 60 years ago. I've never heard of 'Aurans' or 'Silurians' until today..." He picked up the PADD, holding it up to Archer. "But this shows me she's the love of my life, my future wife, the mother of my children! How do you reconcile that?"

xxxxx

Tia Anlor sat down on a bench in the outer reception room, leaning back and looking up tiredly at the high white vaulted ceiling. Her failure had somewhat diminished her joy at the homecoming, but though she was disappointed she could not say she was at all surprised.

However, bad though things seemed, there was one thing that sparked her optimism. In a casual questioning of a passing clerk, she had learned that this was the afternoon of the fourteenth day of the month of Weslik. This date was seared deeply into the memory of every member of her race.

So she sat down on a bench, trying to look relaxed though inside she was 'keyed up' with a tension that seemed to turn her muscles to rock. She reached with false casualness up her sleeve, touching the deadly phase pistol strapped to her arm. Under the loose, billowing blue garment she wore it could not be detected.

She did not know the hour, but she knew the day and she was in the place. The Relatu would soon have cause to summon her back to his office. And this time, if sweet words did not accomplish her mission, she had another way.

xxxxx

"Hoshi?" Archer's voice came over the 'intercom' at her station, automatically shunted to the receiver she held pressed to her ear.

"Yes, sir?" She enquired quietly.

"Would you come to my office?"

"Yes, sir." She took the receiver from her ear, leaving it behind. Not really anxious to do so, knowing what was to come, she crossed the bridge to the Captain's Ready Room, passing through the outer door, stepping down the three steps and pressing the annunciation button. The door slid open immediately.

"Sit down, Hoshi." Archer invited.

The woman sat down very reluctantly indeed, apprehension and anxiety in every movement. Archer does not press her, letting her make the first move. "Sir, I've reviewed everything you told me to." She is unable to keep a measure of trepidation out of her voice.

"And?"

"Captain, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that this scares the hell out of me! It's all so big, but..." She couldn't continue. What she had to say, what she wanted to say, went against all of her training and duty. It even violated everything she was taught about ethics; but she had to say it anyway.

"Sir, I've compared as well as I could the life I know, and the one on that PADD out there. And I've come to the conclusion..." She took a deep, steadying breath, trying to keep her voice level as she announced the last thing she could ever imagine herself saying. "I've come to the conclusion that I want that life!"

Archer watched her carefully, grateful for her honesty. She was the first one so far to give him a firm answer in favor of the other. "Why?"

"Why, sir?"

"Yes. Why that life over this one?"

"Well, for starters Liz Cutler lives!"

"She's alive now. Not on Enterprise, but alive."

"But doomed to die—because of us."

"Because of me, you mean." He'd read the details of that future incident as well as she had. He'd researched it carefully, in hopes of helping this decision, or planning something that could prevent his friend's death two years hence.

Hoshi looked at her Captain, her friend, and did not want to say it. But it had to be said. "Yes, sir. Because of you. If you had backed off—if you do back off, I mean—then Liz will not be murdered."

Archer considered the woman carefully. He'd wanted the truth, and he'd gotten exactly what he'd expected. He could ask nothing less of her. "I appreciate the truth in what you say. We've considered worlds, the fates of billions of people, but by the same token we have to consider the one or two. In our world Elizabeth Cutler will die in a little less than two years time. She will not be married; not have a child; that child will not be a key to a treaty with the Tholian Assembly...But on the other hand—."

"Sir, I don't think there is another 'hand." She leaned forward, the better to accent her position. "Sir, I seem to be placed in a unique position to you all. You all know this 'Tia Anlor' professionally; all except Commander Tucker, that is. I seem to have had more of a personal relationship with her, more so than any, again with the exception of Commander Tucker. And looking at everything I've read from that perspective, this is the right thing to do. I won't say I'm not tempted by what I've read—by what I've written, rather. I seem to even have had a fuller, richer life in that other reality than I have here."

"Are you certain of that?"

"No." She had to admit. "But it feels right." "You may even be right. I cannot tell. I also haven't made a decision one way or the other. But there is something I have to ask you."

"What?" She felt she knew what he was going to say, and wished he would not say it. But there was little choice—he was going to say that one thing she did not want to speak of.

"We're privy to two possible futures involving a friend. If this time line continues, then she will quite probably die at the hands of Dr. Soong and these 'Augments'—though I will do everything possible to prevent it when that time comes. I'll have nearly two years to plan how, after all.

"Of course, there is another method to preserve her life. Knowing the future as we do, if she is warned in advance, she quite probably will not be present at that time and someone else will stand in danger." He watched Hoshi carefully; the woman had ceased meeting his eyes. "If this time line continues, do you intend to warn her?"

"Captain, please don't ask me that. Please."

"But I am asking, Hoshi. Do you intend to warn her, even if at the possible cost of someone else's life?"

Hoshi sat very still for a long time, staring at her hands while Archer waited for an answer. She hadn't believed she had an answer for him, at least one she would admit to herself. Finally, placed in a position where she had to confront it, she knew without a doubt what her answer had to be.

x

It was a heartbreakingly long wait before the woman looked up and met his eyes. There was no trepidation or apprehension in her eyes this time. They were the eyes of someone who had made a life affirming decision.

"Yes. If it is in my power, I will use everything I know, every method I have, to get a warning to her. And you can strip me of my rank, court martial me, put me in prison, do anything you and Starfleet please, but I will warn her."

"Thank you, Hoshi." He said quietly, grateful for her honesty if not her answer. "You'll know when I've made my decision. Dismissed."

xxxxx

It did not take very long before Tia, and everyone else in the large reception room, became aware that something was happening.

Reports coming in via radio and other unknown sources which filtered out from the desks beyond the low wall surrounding the main public area told an increasingly staggering story. The reports were coming in pieces, fragments of news, but altogether it made a clear picture. To Tia, who knew all the details in advance, it was watching a nightmare from her past recreated before her eyes!

As it grew, it became clear that what was happening outside these walls was unprecedented to the point of being unbelievable. Indeed, it was completely unbelievable, incredible, to all but one person in the room. In the city outside, the world was being shaken apart!

A ship from space had touched down! It was so close that those looking out the windows could see it in detail! Aliens, beings unlike any ever imagined, had disembarked, and three of them were approaching the Pryndonitan!

The reported reactions of witnesses ranged from shock through fascination, from fear to panic! Even as those who could get close to a window watched in fascination, reports over various radios filled in the pieces with stunning detail.

Tia had no desire to get close to a window. For her, it was all too familiar, the beginning of the end about to be received with revelry and rejoicing!

She had to steel herself, try to bury her emotions, but all the while her fear was mounting! She did not want to be there, she did not want to see them. She had thought she was ready, that this was what she wanted, but now that the time had come she just wanted to be back on Enterprise. She did not want to see the beginning of the end for her race!

There was no outright screaming panic in the streets, but the reactions of the astounded public outside and the witnesses inside were barely a step below that.

The three aliens were dressed in black uniforms of unknown design. They were greater than two val in height, slightly larger than the average Auran male; were grey-green in color and walked upright. Aura had no reptilian life to compare it to, but Charles had referred to them on the one occasion when he'd seen one as a 'snake', if an Earth serpent could evolve legs and arms, and walk upright with a long tail for balance.

Their almost lipless mouths hid a long tongue that was forked like an Earth serpent, leaving her to theorize that somehow those creatures and Silurians were in some impossibly strange way related. Phlox had been unwilling to dismiss the concept of evolved Terran reptilians, or of 'seeding' by even more advanced life than they had as yet encountered.

The prospect that Charles' planet and Siluria could have any kind of connection at all was monstrous. Ever since she'd heard the theory, she had tried very hard to forget it!

x

Her reverie was broken and attention pulled away from the mounting tension of incoming reports when she felt a grip on her left arm. She turned, looking up at a Security Officer. "::Is Misala Anlor your name?::"

People here knew her by her father's mother's name, as it would be about 40 palyis before she would be born. "Daai."

"::The Relatu you to see wishes.::"

"::I obey.::"

She was escorted back the way she had come barely an hour before. This time, when she passed through the final door, things were very different indeed. This time the Relatu was not alone. There were uniformed men from the local civilian protectors, others she recognized by their attire to be from several scientific institutes.

Unlike Earth, in scenes she had seen with Charles in video records, there were no military men. Aura had no Militia; no Army; no Navy; no Air Force. The impetus to create such things did not exist on Aura.

Ironically, Tia thought with a brief regret, there would no longer be an opportunity to create such things.

The Relatu looked across the growing crowd to the door as she entered and demanded: "::How know did you?::"

x

For the moment Tia realized she had the attention of everyone who could have an influence in events that were about to transpire. This would be her final chance.

She knew from history that most of those present were reeling from the first opportunity to encounter actual life from another world. They had waited and anticipated it all their lives, had worked for it in the planet's fledgling space program, and these men and women would be her greatest obstacle by far. Part of her wished they could have their first encounter, but it was not to be; not if her race was to survive!

"::Told I you did, how from the year 8,937 I come, 66 years into the future. There the Silurians slaves made us. Come they now to 'friendship' offer, ask for gold and offer much. They us betray will! They us enslave and kill will. One final chance you have! Deny them admittance, away send them! Make with them agreement not!::"

"::Madness she speaks!::" One of the elderly scientists protested. She turned to face him.

"::All I have said, happened did. All I say; happen will!::" She turned again to the Relatu. "::Bar them Aura, or doomed our people will be!::"

Behind them the door opened. All turned; and blood ran cold.

xxxxx

Commander Charles Tucker put the PADD down on his desk and stood up, taking a deep, steadying breath. He knew what he had to do. Jonathan Archer and the others had been circling about the issue for hours, weighing evidence and probabilities in the best tradition of scientists and researchers. He, however, was an Engineer, and when the right decision was before him, he knew when it was time to stop second-and third-guessing and make it.

"Daniels!" He called firmly. "Crewman Daniels. I don't know if you can hear me, or how you know the things you do, but know this in your bloody time stream: I want to talk to you!"

"Of course, Commander." The voice from behind his right shoulder almost made him jump up to D deck, but he turned quickly and restrained himself from an automatic defensive swing.

"You know, someday you're going to get your head knocked off; did you ever think of that?"

"Normally I arrive at a safe distance, but in these quarters a 'safe' range would be in your privy."

Tucker gave him a lopsided smile. "Well, they didn't build this ship for comfort, you know."

"Don't worry. In the future, you're going to have bigger quarters."

"It's that 'future' I want to discuss."

"Yes."

"The Captain, T'Pol, Reed; they're all going around in circles over this. If Starfleet were to somehow ever get involved, this could take months."

"I told you I would know when the decision would be reached. I did not say 'the Captain's decision' or anyone else's. I said 'the decision'."

"Yeah, well, you're right. It's made. I'm goin' after her." Daniels only nodded. Tucker picked up the PADD from his desk. "Just tell me one thing. This plan she has to free her people—it's definitely going to fail? No hope?"

"This day, Commander, twenty-three will die, twenty of them Aurans. The next day, nine. After that, eleven. Over the next nine Auran months punitive measures to force the Auran people to capitulate will lead to dozens of deaths each day. Finally, on the last day, 3.85 billion men, women and children will be annihilated when all oxygen-breathing life on the planet is eradicated. Life on Aura requires a link of three molecules to carry oxygen through the body; breaking that link will prevent oxygen from being used by their bodies. In less than an hour, every living thing on the planet will suffocate, and the Silurians will take what they want from a barren world."

Trip stared at him, absolutely shocked. It was all too much to take in. But though this had served to settle his decision, there was just one more thing he wanted to know. Actually, he could not say that he wanted to know it, but that he needed to.

"Just tell me one last thing before I go."

"If I can. I can't violate the temporal accords."

"This won't violate anything, not if what you say is true and these past nine months are about to be wiped out." He still couldn't believe in the reality of what he was so glibly saying. Nine months—Gone!? A new life, a new existence...It was still too hard to accept! Daniels nodded, giving him the chance to at least ask his question. He was sure he did not want an answer, no matter what the course.

"What happens to me in this future? I mean, if I'm going off to find and rescue the love of my life, what happens if I don't? Do I never meet anyone else; and end up a lonely and miserable old man sitting on a park bench somewhere with a cane, a frock coat and five-day stubble?"

"Hardly. Since it will not continue, I can tell you that in this Time Line, should it continue, you actually do forge a relationship with a current member of this crew. It is a strong bond, and leads to some decades together. In fact, you still do have children, except by her."

"All right, who?" Daniels did not answer. "Hey, if it ain't gonna happen, what's the harm in telling me? Is it Hoshi? Ann Anderson? Christina Carson? Dina Samuels? Maggie Hampshire? Rosa Arnell? Janet Teahen?" Daniels said nothing to indicate how impressed he was by Tucker's list of inamorata. "Wait a minute—I know! It's Mary Sherman from Gamma Shift!" He was absolutely sure. Now that the thought had crystallized, it was so obvious he was astonished he'd ever missed it! "I've had a—. Well, I've been noticing her lately. A lot! Lately I'll start my shift just a bit early just to...well...There'd be some fraternization issues to consider, since she's a junior officer on my staff, but we could—."

"T'Pol."

Tucker's speculative dream came to a halt like crashing at warp five into an asteroid! "T'Pol?!" Daniels nodded. "You've been time-streamin' too long!"

xx

Daniels just shook his head. He had had conversations with others that were similar in effect if not in detail, and the best method to proceed was always to keep focused.

"I can send you to her. If you succeed in convincing her not to kill the Silurian delegation, then for you this entire incident will never have happened. For you, everything will be restored to what it was before."

"How?"

"The universe is governed by temporal laws as rigid as physical ones, and as malleable."

"That doesn't make any sense." Trip challenged.

"Nonetheless, it is true. I'm not sure how I can explain it to you without your having extensive training in temporal physics, to say nothing of temporal mechanics. The point is that if an action that has occurred in the past is not done due to a change in the time line further in the past, nothing that followed it will have been done. The effect that preceded the cause will be negated, and..."

Tucker held up his hand. "I'm sorry I asked." He looked at the UT on his desk, but dismissed it. "The UT would be useless, since it is not one of the ones that existed in that time. It's never been programmed. How would I communicate?"

"She speaks English—after a fashion."

"Great. But how do I find her?"

"You'll be chronotransed to her location. You won't have any trouble recognizing her."

"I've been studying her pictures."

"And she'll be the only one holding a phase pistol."

xxxxx

When the door across the room opened, three large reptiles, clothed in black uniforms with insignia and silver markings Tia recognized all too well, entered the room. They moved in a slow, slithering gait, but she was not deceived. She had seen them move very fast indeed.

These were the three ranking officers of the starship above them, who had come in a landing pod for this cataclysmic meeting.

Tia dropped away to the left side, out of the crowd of scientists, backing away in revulsion. She had not wanted to see this horrible moment! She stared forlornly at the trio, feeling more powerless by the moment. This was what she had striven so hard to prevent. This was the moment that had doomed her race. This was what she had to stop!

A crowd of officials followed the staggering visitors into the Relatu's marble office, filling the room beyond capacity as the blue clad man behind the desk stood to greet his approaching guests. They shuffled toward the desk with the characteristic, deceptively slow pace of Silurians, that race that had dominated so many worlds surrounding their own that they never felt a need to hurry.

The leader, so distinguished by the number of silver accoutrements upon his black uniform, most of which Tia recognized, raised a hexagonal device. Its voice, a thing filled with hissing sibilants, was translated into perfect Auran by the device.

Tia watched with sinking heart as the scene played out before her eyes. It was not exactly as she had imagined it, but it was close enough. It was clear the Silurians had spent considerable time observing their 'quarry', something she had always taken for granted. The Relatu and his staff, along with the leading scientists of the day, greeted the Silurians, and were so astounded by them that they were ready to make peace with them.

But Tia knew there was no peace to be had. She had tried to convince her fellows, to show them the truth, but it had been hopeless. They were determined not to listen!

There was only one course left. There was only one solution to this horror!

Reaching up her left sleeve, she pulled the heavy phase pistol from its holster. It was already set on maximum, and even as she pulled it clear of her sleeve she thumbed the safety off. Pointing it at the lead Silurian, she tightened her grip on the trigger.

"TIA!" The loud shout reverberated through the room.


	8. Pain

The Enterprise vanished around Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker, replaced by a large and overcrowded white marble room. There had to be fifty people in a room built for half that many, and for a moment Trip was disoriented. The vast majority of those present, both men and women, possessed the same distinctive features he'd grown familiar with in studying the files Daniels had presented. Golden tinted flesh, tinted in the same way a human's would be red/pink; a vast variety of loose flowing garments, at least on the women. Most of the men wore a variety of colored shirts, but a few wore distinctive clothing easily recognizable as uniforms, perhaps security? Most were blond the way the precious metal would be if it could be imbedded into hair follicles.

The attentions of all were on one man standing behind a large desk at the far end of the room. He was tall, but even his startling skin gave way to piercing eyes that seemed to look into ones very soul. Trip wondered if he was one who believed what his eyes revealed. He wore a pale blue garment, his only ornamentation a lozenge shaped jewel containing a blue gemstone of the same shape, from which radiated eight smaller, similar blue gems.

Before him, clad in tight black uniforms, stood three tall reptilian aliens. Undoubtedly this was the Silurian 'delegation'. To Trip they looked like snakes, if snakes on Earth had ever developed legs and arms, or walked upright at two meters tall, balanced on lengths of tail. Their long heads rested upon articulated necks, below which shoulders such as no snake had ever possessed gave way to sinuous arms and four-clawed 'hands'.

No one noticed him, least of all the woman by the far left wall, the one reaching into the fulsome right sleeve of her loose, flowing blue gown and pulling out a phase pistol!

"TIA!"

His shout disrupts everything! The Aurans, reeling with the experience of dealing with living aliens in their midst, are not at all ready to deal with yet another appearing in the room with them! All eyes lock on him, including the young woman who is his 'quarry'.

"SHAR-LES!" She exclaimed in profound shock.

Trip cut across the crowded room, no one staying him. The surprise of aliens in their midst, and the woman who had urged the halting of this encounter now holding an unknown weapon trained on the delegation was all disconcerting enough. But the sudden appearance within their midst of a pink-skinned alien who was forcing his way through the crowd toward the armed woman was just too much to deal with!

No one moved. The unknown weapon they saw held steady in the woman's left hand was enough to keep even the least wary from making any sudden motions. But the woman and the blue garbed alien speaking to one another in an unintelligible language held them all motionless with utter fascination! Trip stopped a few feet away from her, not quite blocking the pistol's aim—just in case he had thought wrong about her priorities.

"Tia, whatever you're thinking, don't! Do not do this!" He tried to keep his voice calm, yet to allow some of his urgency to show through.

"Shar-les! How come you here?!" She was absolutely stunned. He could not be here. There was no way he could be here!

She had not believed she would survive this act, was not entirely sure she could convince her people it was the right thing to do after the deed was done. But of all the things she had expected, the appearance of Charles Tucker was not one of them!

"The same way you did. Daniels; he sent me to stop you!"

"No! I must! I my people free must!" She insisted. It was why she was there, why she had been sent into the past. Nothing must interfere with that goal!

"Not like this! You can't!" He took a careful step closer. Her aim had never wavered, she still held the pistol pointed directly at the lead Silurian, and a lifetime of hatred and pain urged her to fire!

x

Trip approached the woman as slowly, as cautiously, as he could; all the while aware of the multitude of aliens surrounding them. That the Silurians were armed he had no doubt. He also had no doubt that the ones who appeared to be in uniform were Security Officers; whether armed or not in the presence of their leader he had no idea, but he was betting they were. But right now he had to put all that out of his mind. He had to focus on the stranger in front of him, and somehow convince her that she was the love of his life when he had never laid eyes upon her before!

All he had to go on was a PADD full of pictures and logs. What she had to go on was eight months of memories of him.

Disassembling a warp core blindfolded would be less of a challenge.

x

"A trick you are!" She accused, as frantic as she was confused. This was all wrong! This could not be happening! As close as she was to attaining her people's salvation, it had to be another of those 'Temporal Cold War' tricks!

"Tia. I'm asking you to trust me. Have I ever lied to you?"

"Daai!"

"I don't know what that means." In his tension, the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them, and the effect they had on the woman was profound. She stared at him, as shocked as if he'd punched her in her face!

"You know not!" She tried to demand, but it came out in barely a gasp.

He gave up, knowing that to deceive her was impossible. He held up his hands, trying to stop her, trying to keep things from spiraling completely out of control!

"All right—I'll be honest. I'm never going to convince you otherwise. Tia, I don't have a clue who you are!" She stared at him as if he had stepped up and slapped her. "I've never met you before in my life! Daniels sent me here because he says you're my wife—my future wife, rather—and you're about to do something that's going to wipe out your entire race!"

x

The revelations in Trip's words slammed into her abused mind with devastating force. He'd forgotten her; just as she'd feared, just as she'd told him this morning! No, not forgotten—he never knew her! This was her fear magnified a thousand times over! 'Wife? Future Wife?!' But the Salyuun...! 'Wipe out your entire race!'? How?!

Hopelessly lost, she latched on to the one thing that seemed to make sense, horribly insane though it was! "You—you me do know not?!"

"Tia, I don't know how to explain this mess to you except to tell you that, in the reality I'm from, the reality you apparently made when you came back here, you were never born! No one knows you!"

"But I—!" This was madness! This was completely impossible! She could not 'never have been born'! It was insane! It had to be a lie—but this was Charles!

"Tia, you came back here to change the past of your planet, but if you fire that phase pistol you will destroy that past—and future!"

"Nyas! Riid?!" In her distress, she could barely keep remembering to translate her words into English. "How?!"

"In the reality I'm from, the one your firing created, the Silurians take revenge for this. And whatever they did in the past you remember, this time they start executing your citizens, later bombing your cities, killing all of you!"

"Nyas!" She wanted to throw away his words. They had to be lies!

"In just nine months the resistance you form and lead will result in the Silurians deciding your people can't be broken by bombing and phasing whole cities out of existence, and they decide to destroy you all! They find some way, maybe a gas; I don't know, but it attacks your blood. In nine months there won't be anything alive anywhere on this planet! Nothing! No people, no animals, no life! Nothing!"

She shook her head almost frantically, trying to dispel his words! "But he said save them I can! Tried to convince the Relatu to away turn them. Did work not. This—."

"Tia, I know you're trying to free your planet, probably bring back some idyllic life. Maybe this world right now is idyllic, I don't know. I've never seen any of it, but I've read that you have been longing to come back here. I wish I knew of a way to make it so, but this is not it!"

"I my world can restore! I can!"

"Tia, listen to me. It won't work!"

"It must! I can again try!" She exclaimed desperately, holding up her left arm, showing him the chronotran strapped to her wrist.

"Do you know how to work that?"

"Nyas. But—."

"Listen, no 'buts'! It's a cheat! A lie! It won't help you! You cannot use that to change the past, no matter how many times you talk to these people. It won't work! They're always going to let the Silurians in, and they're always going to be betrayed!"

"Nyas! Nyas!" She cried, tears of frustration and pain glistening on her cheeks; but her aim never wavered. "You lying are—and to me you swore you would lie again never!"

"Damn it, I'm telling you the truth! I don't know what our relationship was, but I swear to you I am telling you the truth! If you ever believed me on anything, believe me now! I came back to stop you from making a horrible mistake, one that will kill every Auran that is or ever will be!"

"Nyas!"

"You can't succeed. This was all a trap!"

"Nyas!"

He hated himself for what he had to say, but he did not dare stop pressing, as much as it hurt either of them. "And even if you were to succeed, even if what I tell you was not going to happen, what were you going to do? You'll be trapped here, decades before you were born! It's over 47 of your years until you are born!"

"Nyas! I this button to push am and—."

"And nothing! Tia, think! Think! Even if it took you back to the exact spot and moment you left; Enterprise is not there! The ship's hundreds, maybe thousands, of parsecs away from wherever it was when you left. It's not where it was in your history, its where it is in mine. You'll materialize in deep space and be dead in seconds!" She hesitated, and he could see in her eyes that she had the horrible image he painted. But hard as it was, no matter how painful it was, there was more that had to be said. "And even if that thing somehow compensated for that, what will you be among us?"

"I your—."

"Nothing! You won't have existed among us! Tia, think! If you had been able to drive the Silurians off, what then? Whatever we have between us will never exist—you've nothing to come 'back' to!"

"You!" She exclaimed desperately. She had to hold on to this! Without this, there was nothing for her! She had to save her people! She had to! She could not let them suffer decades of slavery! She had to save them!

x

"How? If your plan had worked, if the Silurians had not enslaved your people, your history would be different than you remember. You'd grow up in a world that had never known the Silurians. How could we ever meet then? What incentive would you and your friends have had to steal a Silurian ship and escape this planet for me to find?" She stared at him, stunned, unable to speak, barely able to think coherently as the realization of the magnitude of the Temporal Agent's betrayal washed over her.

Trip watched as his words broke her, and tears of heartrending pain trickled down her cheeks. He wished he could have stopped, but the cost was too high.

"And if you fire, if you kill them, their people will rain down death from orbit! Your people will be helpless as they are bombed and shot down, your cities leveled and your people killed; hundreds, then thousands, then millions until nine months from now, when they don't give in, every single one of them will be killed and there will be nothing left! The Silurians will kill everyone! Everything!

"Tia, succeed or fail, you cannot win! There is no way!"

"Nyas! I save them have to!" She cried desperately, the pistol shaking in her outstretched hand. "Somehow—I have to!" She was crying openly, but he could not stop it.

Trip shook his head sadly, wishing there were some other way. First Contact was only three decades ago. Earth was decades away from even testing NX-Alpha, and the Vulcans would never...

"You can't." He told her softly, hating himself for the pain he was inflicting upon her. "Your people can't fight back against orbiting starships; they don't have the technology." He slowly stepped up to the trembling woman, standing aside from her line of fire.

"They have only two fates; slavery or extermination." He put out his hand. "It's up to you to choose which Hell to give them."

x

Tears streaming down her face, Tia focused on the Silurian Captain still standing beyond the end of her phase pistol. With all her soul she longed to fire, but Charles was right. There was no way to save her people—not any more!

Slowly, very slowly her arm began to lower, as if the weapon were growing too heavy for her to hold steady anymore. Charles took the gun from her slackened grip. She couldn't even look at him, her eyes seething with fiery hatred, locked on the Silurians.

The words from Malcolm Reed's favorite book were suddenly there, unwelcome, in her mind, even as he'd read them to her: 'He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it.'

Trip took the phase pistol, sliding the safety on and locking it in place, rendering the weapon unusable.

x

In the instant of his incapacitating it, the 'future' where Tia had assassinated the Silurians and, in revenge, they had destroyed all life on Aura, never occurred. Trip, having therefore never existed to go back to Aura's past to prevent their annihilation, vanished, the inert phase pistol clattering to the floor.

Tia, however, remained in the room. She stared at the spot where he had stood, unable to even feel surprise against her overwhelming grief.

She had tried to free her people. She had tried all her life, and now she had been offered a second chance, but it was a lie and she had failed.

Having been convinced by the Temporal Cold Warrior to return to her planet in an attempt to free her people, she now stood defeated. Overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of her failure, she did not even care when the Protectorate Officers grabbed her, one scooping up the disabled phase pistol.

"::Take her.::" The amazed Relatu ordered. Shaken, stunned and positively overwhelmed by the amazing events of the past hour, he was still determined to make the best of the arrival of these amazing new friends from the stars.

x

The squad of Protectors pulled the unresisting woman from the room. She would be held in the detention building less than a valri away, to await the Relatu's disposition of her case.

Tia said nothing as she was led out of the Pryndonitan, her mind only on her failure. As she was 'escorted' firmly through corridors and offices she could only think of the futures of these people. Everyone she saw would soon be a casualty or a slave, they and their families and children and children's children. And there was nothing she, or anyone else, could do about it anymore!

She met no one's eyes as she was brought through the main reception room. She did not want to see anyone, to know that because of her failure they were doomed to a few years of interesting changes in their lives, and then suddenly, unexpectedly, their lives would be nothing but suffering and misery. When the gold in the ground was exhausted, the Silurians would turn to the people, and Ierilsnu would begin!

x

She was pulled out of the building and into the garden, down the long, winding path of white gravel to the street.

Tia looked up, seeing Sabaoth high in the violet heavens, its vast rings bright with every hue of the spectrum. Suddenly, seeing this visible representation of the consort of Aura, it was as if all the fight had gone out of her. She was defeated, her people are doomed, and what happened to her now did not make any difference at all. Re-enslaved, killed, she suddenly found she no longer cares! She has failed to save her people, nothing else matters!

But as she was pulled along, she stared upward at Sabaoth, She did not care if this was the last time she would see it; she would look while she had her chance.

Whatever the Relatu does with her is meaningless now. She determines to concentrate on the moment, and to pray to her gods. And to 'enjoy' the moment, for in these minutes remaining before the Relatu's damned decision regarding the Silurians' 'offer', for this one last moment Aura is free.

The very last thing Tia Anlor sees in this life is the ringed giant Sabaoth casting its reflected red light upon the city of Zaslani, turning the blue sky violet.

x

The next instant she is gone, having never existed there. The Protectorate Officers surrounding her vanish in the same moment, having never left the building. Inside, in the Relatu's office, the reception of the aliens continues apace, having never been foretold nor interrupted.

x x x x x x x x x x x x

Tia barely knew how she made it back to her own quarters, her mind awash in misery and frustration. She has just left Trip Tucker's quarters, unable to endure another moment in that room! She would have given anything to tell him, to tell him everything, to break a lifetime of custom and rules of behavior.

She opens the door to her quarters, entering the room, violently stripping off her white robe and throwing it at a chair before collapsing dejectedly onto her bunk, misery overwhelming even her frustration.

She lays there for several minutes, wondering how she can resolve her own conflict with the expectations and mores of her planet and upbringing, when the door opens and Trip strides into the room, talking angrily even before the door closes again, pent up frustration adding fire to his words.

"All right, Tia, I've had it! That's it! No more! I am completely fed up!" She turns on the bed, looking up at him, startled as he continues in high fury, refusing to be distracted by her lush nudity, pointing his finger at her for sharp emphasis, demanding; "Now you are going to tell me right now what this 'Mrunion Alirki ne Avinyaan' means! You're going to explain what 'Tuvili' means and why it drove you out of my quarters! You're going to explain this 'kentile' thing! You're going to explain this 'Salyuuni' you've been calling me, even if it's 'honey' or something like that; and you are going to do this right now, because you are not leaving here until you do!"

Delighted at his forceful commands, she gets off the bed and stands before him, smiling radiantly. "Daai, my Lord and Savior. Yours I am."

"Look, never mind the flowery language." He demands, refusing to be distracted by her lush nakedness. "Just tell me, okay?!"

She smiled even more ecstatically. "But that it is; 'mrunion Alirki ne Avinyaan', 'my Lord and Savior' you are. My 'Savior' have you been always, since you me took off the Krontis; my 'Lord' for all time you are, for you me command, and I you obey willingly in all things. 'Tuvili'; 'yours I am'. Kentile, 'bonded' we are as the only male intimate with have I been since the Luuru. 'Salyuuni' you are because I you the Malyn, um, 'Pledge' of Salyuun on Risa did give. 'I you my body offered, I you my breath offered, I you my soul offered, I you my life offered, now and always, so long as I live shall!' I yours in all things am, pledged and bound! Far more than when miktriz, than when 'slave' I was—that nothing was. Yours I am, of my own will and accord, all my body, breath and soul!"

x

Trip was stunned, more so at the joy in her elated declarations. He knew that, ever since their return from Risa, she had been living in an especially romantic mood, but he had not conceived of this. He now understood her devastation when she thought he had 'forgotten' her pledge, but in fact he had never understood it or its deep significance to her. 'Deep significance' did not even cover this. He was stricken speechless by the import.

Unable to think of anything to say, he extended his hands to her, and when she took them, infinitely delighted, he drew her close, hugging her. He fervently prayed that in the seconds he bought he would have been inspired in what to say. As usual, this prayer was not immediately answered.

Instead, the nude woman stood in his arms, holding him even as she pressed close, patiently, hopefully, awaiting his answer—and he could not think of one!

"Tia..." He wanted to ask her to put some clothes on, at least the robe that lay thrown over the chair, but he thought that was a bad idea. As powerfully distracting as she was, he knew his first words had better be on this subject, or he would be lost entirely. "Tia, this Pledge of...ah..."

She pulled back a bit to look at him. "Salyuun."

"Salyuun." He took a deep breath, realizing he was actually frightened of her answer. "Are we married?"

She smiled brightly and his heart nearly stopped.

x

"Nyas, Shar-les. We are nyasi." He tried very hard not to show the relief he felt. He honestly believed that, if he were ever to be married, it would be to this gorgeous woman. But he did not want to be unexpectedly married, nor married by some obscure custom he never knew! When and if he ever did get married, he wanted to know it!

"'Marry' Aurans do. 'Tulii' our word is." He felt a bit more relieved. "But I you bonded to am." In a moment, the apprehension was back.

"Can you explain that?" She hesitated, the same way she usually did when she was treading on things so private to Aurans they were understood without explanation, and it had become obscene to actually talk about them. "Please?" Again the hesitation. He sighed feelingly, exasperated. "All right. If I'm supposed to be your 'Lord'—and that's something we're really going to talk about—then I order you to tell me!"

She smiled gratefully. "Ealyiis! Um, I mean 'Thank you'. Legend it is; that the night of the Luuru on, the 'luuruna', if a man she with it does pass; that man her true love is to be, and bonded for all time their souls are."

"That's why you got so concerned when the sun was rising. You said you wanted the night to last forever."

"Daai."

"And if I hadn't had us transported clear to the other side of the planet—."

"The night ended would have, before I a chance to you myself pledge had."

"That's why you've been walking around for the past few weeks like a...like someone in a romantic haze." He'd been so close to saying 'newlywed' before he'd managed to bite it off!

"Thought I you my Pledge had accepted."

"I didn't understand a word you said; we were kissing so much, to say nothing of my being able to answer you." He saw her joyous expression slip, and he realized how his words hurt.

"Know I that do." She admitted in a dead voice, one he could not bear to hear.

He reached out, taking her hands. "But you do know how I feel. And now that I know, I would gladly take that pledge with you."

She shook her head sadly. "We can not. For the luuruna is it. Long past that night is."

He heard in her sad tone all she had gained, and then lost. "Tia, I am so sorry."

She smiled, but it was forced. "It matters not. It a romantic legend is...was."

He shook his head. "Romantic legends are very important. And I know how much it can hurt to lose them."

"I am quilwaz nyasi, um, 'hurt' not." She said softly, but there was a deep sadness, a loss, that was still hard to bear. She looked up at him, not letting him remind her about always keeping the truth between them. "But change how I feel I can not. Bonded I you to am." She saw he was about to say something, but she did not give him the chance to interrupt. "Bonded I you to am! There other is no. I Aura see will again never. You I the only person ever imagine could spend my life with to. I another would want not. Ever! Know you this do. There for me in my life will be but you one no. Though 'tuvili' I am not, yours still I am, now and always!"

Trip held her close. He wished he could find the right words, even broken as hers were, to tell her how he felt; that he could never imagine anyone else in his life but her either.

x

With a gentle urging, he drew her closer to the bed, and together they sat on its edge. He took her golden hand and a man in a Starfleet uniform materialized near the viewport.

He was clearly as surprised as they were, though they did not know it was because there were two people in the room when he expected only Tia. In the moment of hesitation that stopped him the red beam of a phase pistol sliced across the room from near the door, striking him squarely in his chest! He slammed back against the bulkhead; then bounced off it to pitch face down on the deck as Trip and Tia stared in astonishment!

A black uniformed man crossed the room in front of them to where the Starfleet crewman lay; knelt next to him, and as he looked back at them Trip recognized former-Steward Daniels, since revealed to be a Temporal Agent. The last time he'd seen him was over five weeks ago during the incident on Eminiar VIII.

Trip, barely able to take it all in, found himself reacting thoughtlessly, taking from behind them Tia's rumpled blanket and pressing it with one hand to her body, forgetting in his surprise that Aurans had no distinction of any parts of bodies being more 'significant' than others, nor the human concept of 'modesty'. He acted automatically even as he tried to piece together what in hell was happening!

Daniels, looking up at them, meeting Trip's eyes, was the only one to know that, in the instant of stunning the Temporal Cold Warrior, Tia had vanished from Aura while on the way to her cell, and the meeting on that world continued, having never been interrupted. The alternate Time Line was now broken. Though he remembered having done so, he will have never spoken to 'this' Trip Tucker, nor would he appeal to the Enterprise crew, in about half an hour, for aid.

He placed one hand on the back of the man he had stunned and said to them: "Sorry for the interruption. Don't mind us. Carry on." He touched a button on the device in his hand, and both men vanished.

Trip and Tia stared at one another, astounded. It was perhaps twenty seconds before either could find any words. "Are you sure..." Trip asked, still holding the blanket to her chest, "...that you want to be bonded to any of us?"

Epilogue

Several hours had passed, and Tia was on her lunch break when she returned to her quarters, having little appetite. The conversation she had had with Charles prior to breakfast, followed by a vastly inconclusive investigation into the sudden appearance of Daniels and another Temporal Agent, clearly both with their own agendas, had left her late for her shift and unable to concentrate through most of it.

She locked her door, intending to spend a short time in communion, hoping the meditation would clear her mind, but she was not to have the peace she needed. As she turned, she immediately fell into an automatic defensive posture before recognizing the 'intruder' who had not been present an instant before.

Former Crewman Daniels stood beyond her bunk, near her clothing 'closet', dressed in the black uniform he had been wearing just this morning. "I'm sorry to startle you/" He apologized.

"Why here are you?!" She demanded, aggravated at finding him in her room uninvited. She had locked her door to prevent uninvited guests, and was annoyed to find her efforts so easily circumvented. "What want do you?"

"Peace. I've come to give you something."

She was still suspicious, but no longer as much on the defensive. From what she knew from Charles and the other humans, this man normally posed no danger. But if he did threaten her, she was ready. "What?"

"It's one of the unfortunate things about temporal mechanics, that when time lines are changed, no one not 'protected' retains any memory of the change. We've actually involved you three times in keeping the Proper Time Line in order, though you remember only two times, not the last."

"Daai?" She asked, still suspicious.

Daniels regarded the woman closely. He'd last seen her here, and before then eight months after her return to her planet, when he'd found her and restored her 'chronotran' to serviceable function just days before the utter destruction of her race. Thus, they had worked together four times in actuality, one time line 'within' another. He'd been impressed by her plight each time he'd seen her, and so he had taken this unprecedented action with the permission of his superiors.

"Of all those on this ship that we have worked with, you are unique, as you are completely cut off from your world and history."

"As Shar-les say would; 'tell me something I don't know'!" She said bitingly, trying to bury again the sharp sting of the reality that was her 'new' life aboard Enterprise.

"Normally we do not 'repay' service; it would cause more complications than could possibly be tolerated. This time, however, it is agreed there would be no discernable disruption of the Time Line involved in giving you something that would be meaningful to you but would not be missed on your world."

He reached for a large, leather bound volume on the shelf of her desk, a double-sized book she had not noticed before, and when she saw it her heart skipped a beat. And another! She stared at it in monumental astonishment, barely able to think. She forgot to breathe!

It was hers! She recognized it instantly! It had stood on a shelf in her room in Pastuu, the room she had rented from her friends, the same ones who had died during their disastrous escape from Aura! It was, for her, the most important book she owned, the revealed word and wisdom of Aura to her people, one so important that she had spent the past several months trying to recreate it from memory, against the time when her memory of the Goddess would fail.

It was something so private she had not even shared the existence of the reconstruction with Charles, something so important to her that she could not even begin to estimate its personal value! Only two people, Hoshi and Patricia McCabe, knew of the existence of the reconstruction she kept hidden in a locked drawer on her 'closet'. They were the only ones who had ever touched it, and only because she had been so shocked at the similarity to their own revelation book at the Priest's first Religious Gathering aboard Enterprise.

Daniels held the large tome out to her and she took it, her breath catching in her throat as she touched it. Once she touched it, she knew it was hers! This was real! This was no dream! She took the book in her hands, staring at it as she would a beloved and long lost friend she had come to accept she would never see again. She could not speak. Her emotions clutched her throat; inexpressible joy and the grief for a world forever lost to her locked her breath and stole her voice.

She looked up at the man, her vision blurred by tears of rapture and anguish. She looked down, opening the book with utter reverence, the familiar curves, curls and whorls of Auran script exactly as she remembered.

She looked up again and she was alone.

Tia hugged the large book to her chest as tightly as she could, never wanting to let go ever again! Unable to stand, she slowly fell to her knees, so happy she could not think! Locked in the privacy of her quarters, she hugged the book adoringly, lovingly, tears of ecstasy on her cheeks.


End file.
